Grays Eden boosts Maun's tourism lustre
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday August 13, 2024 10:29
Set partly on a cliff face overlooking the banks of Thamalakane River, the hotel was built through a partnership between investors, Sam and Sandrine Morris and Ker & Downey Botswana, a subsidiary of Chobe Holdings. The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) facilitated the investment, which began through its London office. 'The project shows the growing importance of tourism in Botswana and indicates a new five-star service offering,' Masisi said on Saturday when officially opening the hotel. 'At full capacity, it will employ 60 people and if you multiply that by a family of five, you see how many stand to benefit.
' Grays Eden features 12 stylishly decorated rooms, comprising five villas and seven cottages. The hotel's design is based on a spacious, airy and light aesthetic that offers luxury in a wilderness setting. The hotel also features Maun's first wine cellar carved into the cliff face. Grays Eden stems from the Morris' vision in 2018 to establish a tourism operation. Sam Morris, a United Kingdom citizen and his Motswana wife, Sandrine, chose Botswana for the beauty of its natural wilderness and the country's attractive investment climate. 'Maun was always on our horizon and we looked at a number of properties and this one ticked a number of boxes, being close to the airport, a good size and great indigenous trees,' Morris told BusinessMonitor. 'We worked very closely with the BITC while we were in the UK and they facilitated our investment.
'Together with other government organs, they have created an incredibly friendly environment for international investors and it's something that for us, made Botswana an obvious choice.' Morris said in searching for a location, the cliff face was amongst the winning features for where the hotel was built. 'The area was used as a quarry and the cliff face was something that other investors didn't know what to do with. For us, it was an amazing point to use in the property to separate accommodation from food and beverage. 'It gives people the most unbelievable advantage view over the river which is a really rare thing because a lot of properties in Maun are very flat and you get a sort of horizontal view.
This is absolutely amazing,' he said. Morris added that the couple is still searching out the next investment opportunity in the country. 'It has been an amazing journey and we are just beginning,' he said. 'The future is bright and we are in it for the long haul. 'Our children are here and in school and our families are here. We live here and this is home.' Grays Eden was built with most of the material sourced or manufactured from within and around Maun. Construction began in January 2022. The hotel has already received strong bookings from the local and international market, even before its official opening.