By Tawanda Musariri

The City of Gweru is set to upgrade its status through major infrastructural developments to enable it to compete with metropolis like Harare and Bulawayo.

Gweru City was exhibiting at the 2019 Sanganayi/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo in Bulawayo; an annual fair attracting players in the leisure industry from Zimbabwe, the region and overseas.

Gweru Municipality Finance Director, Mr Owen Masimba told the Harare Post that the city had plans afoot to erect three state of the art hotels and an airport to make it attractive to both local and international visitors.

"Our intention is to upgrade the city's MICE (Meetings, International, Conferences and Exhibition) capacity through the development of facilities required by mega events like the Sanganayi/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo happening here. As you notice, Gweru has the advantage of its centrality, hence it can be an ideal venue for national events if it has the requisite facilities. Unfortunately the lack of these facilities does not make Gweru the first choice for exhibitors despite the centrality advantage.

"So, having noticed this handicap, the city has identified land upon where three world class hotels will be erected. Also, plans are at an advanced stage to upgrade the local aerodrome to an airport. With these facilities, we know we would be in good stead to offer the services sought by businesses avoiding us."

Masimba said the combined land set aside for the three hotels is 11 hectares. A site measuring 2.9ha has been identified at the foot of the Gweru Kopje overlooking the stately Zesa Pension Fund complex on Bulawayo Road.

Another piece of land measuring 4.5ha at the western limits of Athlone suburb right at the source of Gweru River is earmarked for a 220 room hotel with a mini golf course, conference and service centres and a casino.

Masimba said the envisaged developments were inspired by the need to put devolution into motion. With enough hotels, conference facilities and an airport that enables direct flights into the city, we know we would have made the city stand alone as a self sufficient entity in terms of MICE, thanks to the introduction of devolution as a development model.

The third site, 3.5ha in size, is situated between Fairmile Motel and the Fire station along the Bulawayo highway.

The finance boss said that all these hotels were within accessible vicinities to the Bata and Gweru Sports clubs, the military museum, the Gweru Memorial Library, Gweru Golf Course, the public swimming pool, the theatre, the Bowling Club and Antelope Park just outside Gweru.

"In all these major developments, we are head hunting potential partners where we have put various development models which include Build, Operate and Transfer schemes. What I can confirm is that we are in progressive talks with an identified partner for the airport project. Expect an announcement soon," said Masimba.

Under the devolved model of development, local authorities and other administrative zones of government are expected to design localized economic development systems that make their micro economies self sufficient. To this end, Government has set aside ZW$310 million.