Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube – [email protected]
THE recent Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo was a perfect marketing and network platform for ambitious Palawani Lakeworld Resort which is set to launch a new houseboat product next week.
Palawani Lakeworld Resort, a part of Magic Holdings, is a young business with ambitions to expand its market share in recreational tourism, agri-business, team building and various forms of farming.
It is located deep in the woods between the mining towns of Shurugwi and Zvishavane giving its clients a taste of the natural serene environment on the shores of Palawani Lake.
The lake is a significant body in the Midlands Province where it stretches for close to 20km with a capacity of 72 million cubic litres of water and supplies water to the asbestos mining town of Zvishavane as well as Mimosa and Murowa Diamonds mines.
The Palawani Resort was launched in 2021 and has eight safari units giving accommodation to different kinds of clients including day trippers.
The facility is one of the key tourism operators in Midlands with its activities classified under LAW (land, air and water), it is surely a untapped gem that needs to be opened up to the world market for experiences.
While it is not the first time Palawani Lakeworld Resort has exhibited at the Sanganai/Hlanganani Expo, general manager Ms Lizzy Adams said the quality of buyers and inquiries at the recent 2024 edition that was held between 11 and 14 September was high.
Speaking at the expo, Ms Adams, renowned tourism executive who once worked for the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority where she rose to area manager in Midlands, said new networks were created.
“The most exciting thing is that we are launching a houseboat on the 28th of September. We will be hosting various artistes who will come to actually help us launch this momentous occasion,” she said.
Palawani provides unforgettable vacations at its eco-friendly retreat and lifestyle centre whose focus is on uplifting people’s spirits through fun, adventure and cuisines.
The facility calls its experience FAF or getting FLAFED (Fun, Learning, Adventure, Food) with its safari type of accommodation, delicious cuisines, swimming, putt putt, ziplining, boat ride, dam wall experience, fishing and other activities.
The activities are classified into LAW.
The land activities include quad biking, hiking, camping beach, while for air activities its zipline, sky walk and Adam’s Apple. The water activities include boat cruise, swimming and fishing among others.
“We do a lot of team building activities mainly for organisations and churches that need to come together with their teams. We do agri-business which is aquaculture, epi-culture, horticulture which is community based as most of the land is in the community who we teach how to grow vegetables and others.
“In aqua culture we do fish farming and our motto is “from the lake to the plate” and our fish is well renowned as we also supply the local community up to Gweru,” said Ms Adams.
She said their clientele is mainly locals especially from Zvishavane and surrounding areas with others from across the country and beyond.
“We have exhibited before as Palawani at Sanganai/Hlanganani and and this is a great networking platform not only with local exhibitors but also with regional and international buyers. It is a great opportunity also to benchmark other operators and link up and enhance our business connections,” she said.
“We go national to other towns and we also have regional and international clients, so that’s why we were at Sanganai/Hlanganani so that we have other people to help market us. As Palawani we believe that you need to come to Palawani to retreat, reboot and rejuvenate.”
In short, Palawani is an agri-tourism business that focuses on leisure, agri business as well as retreat in terms of team building.
The facility offers affordable packages while fulfilling the goals of community based tourism through employment creation, enhancing the tourism value chain and contributing to the growth of the sector that contributes 12 percent to the Gross Domestic Product according to figures form the first half of the year.
-@ncubeleon
Online Reporter