Hotel Zimbabwe

(An SA Blog Beta post from Your Correspondent.)

One of Zimbabwe’s landmark hotels, the Sheraton, is losing its current management company at the end of the year, Starwood Hotels and Resorts. A state-backed company will take over in 2006. Given Zim’s entrenched crises on so many different fronts, the likely reason behind Starwood’s move is that it is simply giving up.

Zimbabwe has suffered from various forms of disinvestment since it began its self-destructive “land reform” process a few years ago - institutional, financial, human, etc. Not surprisingly, tourism has suffered heavily - many governments advise their citizens to avoid the country altogether. The Sheraton probably has trouble filling its rooms.

SA Blog has heard from local South Africans that it’s actually a great time to travel to Zim, because of the deals offered by the remaining tour operators hoping to stay afloat. For those who’ve never been before, however, now’s probably not the time to book a luxury suite in Harare.