The Accountant-May-June 2017

KAMPALA ««««« PICTORIAL PROGRESS REPORT NOV. 2015
TRAVEL
KAMPALA ««««« PICTORIAL PROGRESS REPORT NOV. 2015
KAMPALA
There was stiff competition from
among international hotel management
companies to add the hotel to their
portfolio, Rezidor’s offer to designate the
hotel as the launchpad for the Quorvus
Collection brand in Africa is one of the
key factors that put them ahead of their
peers. In a single stroke, they have been
able to establish themselves as the group
that other hotel chains will have to try to
match.
In striving to set a new standard,
Hamid has created a small city within
the city, straddling the biggest plot in the
centre of Kampala, with its own electrical
power station to give total 24-hour backup
in the event of a mains failure, to run
the guest rooms, restaurants, kitchens,
bakery, laundry, and communications, and
to operate the twelve lifts that serve the
complex.
Apart from the indoor swimming
pool in the spa area, there are three
outdoor swimming pools cascading down
the landscaped grounds of the hotel,
overlooked by both the main specialty
restaurant and the pool bar, which are
housed in a two-storey wing beside the
main tower. There are other restaurants
and dining areas in the main tower, with
a massive self-contained ballroom in the
deep lower ground floor, with a VIP prefunction
room above it. The executive
lounge in the centre of the ground floor
gives on to one of the hotel’s many paved
terraces, which are also a feature of the
sports bar beside the entrance atrium.
Although many modern hotels have
reduced the size of their business centres,
or done away with them altogether, the
Pearl Of Africa has taken the opposite
tack, with a huge business centre and
three adjacent lounge areas beside the
lift lobby on the mezzanine floor of the
hotel, which also houses nine different
meeting and breakout rooms that can
accommodate conferences, cocktails,
and business presentations. Although
meetings and conferences are being
heavily promoted in Uganda, and are
becoming increasingly important revenue
earners for the hospitality industry, it is
social functions on a Hollywood scale for
which Kampala is unique in East Africa.
One manufacturing company famously
n AYA Investments Uganda Limited A
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68 MAY - JUNE 2017
AYA Investments Uganda Limited