Southwest hotels boom ahead of 2016, 2019 AFCON

The exhilarating aura that greeted Cameroon’s victory to host the 2016 and 2019 Female and Male African Cup of Nations, AFCON, respectively, were short-lived, as Cameroonians were confronted by the infrastructural realities on the ground.

Tongues were already wagging that Cameroon would not be able to host a successful AFCON, given the country’s infrastructural deficiency in terms of good stadia, hotels and good transport network, among others.

While pessimists were already assessing the failures of the country before a ball could even be kicked, or before a delegation could even board a plane en route to Cameroon, some entrepreneurs were already seeing opportunities and breakthroughs where worry warts saw failures.

The construction of a new stadium in Limbe seems to have acted as a catalyst to the proliferation of hotels in the Southwest Region.

As if to make matters worse, the inclusion of the Limbe Stadium as one of the venues where matches would be played further fuelled the erection of hotels in the Region.

From when Cameroon won the bids to host the aforementioned soccer fiestas, several hotels have seen the light of day.

The Southwest Region seems to be producing hotels by each passing day. For instance, the students’ residential neighbourhood of Molyko in the Southwest Regional capital, Buea, which hitherto had a few hotels, now counts more than a dozen of them, excluding inns and guesthouses.

Speaking during one of the preparatory meetings ahead of the 50th anniversary of Cameroon’s reunification, celebrated in Buea, the Southwest Regional Delegate of Tourism and Leisure, Peter Pel Elangwe, had stated that when it comes to the hospitality industry, the Region had the propensity to conveniently host an international event and accommodate all her guests in the Region, without seeking external help.

The proliferation of hotels and the booming of the hospitality industry in the Region, he said, was due to the fact that the Southwest Region is a touristic hotspot in Cameroon, which needs not only to be discovered, but also to be savoured.

One of the Managers of the foremost hotel in Buea, Forchu Chama, told this reporter that his hotel is in a strategic position to serve businesspersons and travelers. According to him, they offer a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for rest to their clients at affordable prices, depending on the choice and class of the room.

On her part, a Receptionist in one of the hotels said their services are mostly rendered to businessmen and civil servants.

Appraising the upsurge in the number of hotels in Buea, Eric Ngoran, a student in the University of Buea, said hotels are very useful and relevant in society, because, they meet the needs of those who are visiting a country for the first time or citizens of a country visiting a particular part of the country for the first time. He, however, frowned at those who use hotels in a negative way like; taking refuge in them after committing a crime or transforming hotels into hubs of prostitution.

Fon Awazi, a businessman, said he only uses a hotel on business trips, because, according to him, the services of most hotels are very expensive. To Adriane Sango, hotels provide valuable services to couples, businesspersons and tourists.

Meantime, while the hospitality industry is flourishing and preparing to provide the best services to the delegations that will be participating in the 2016 and 2019 AFCON, many Cameroonians are hoping that the Government will devote most of its resources to improving the other infrastructures like the transportation network and stadia, so that Cameroon would not only host memorable tourneys, but the tournaments should provide other countries the opportunity to discover Cameroon, which is Africa’s miniature