Burigi-Chato Park Hotel on Lake Victoria shores to become tourism hotspot for Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania

A Three-star luxury hotel with iconic floating bar opens doors on the shores of Lake Victoria in December 2024.

Tanzania is working to establish this state-of-the-art three-star tourist facility which is set to transform travel and hospitality around the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest water body.

Being built under the auspices of the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) the proposed Burigi-Chato Park Hotel will have among other outstanding features, a floating bar with transparent floor to enable visitors to enjoy ‘a one for the road above the lake.’

The Chato District Commissioner, Said Nkumba said the Burigi Chato Hotel coming up in Geita Region, is among the national strategic projects aimed at boosting tourism and hospitality around the Lake Zone circuit as well as to tap visitors from the neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

“We expect the hotel to be ready for the 2024 Christmas and 2025 New-Year Holiday seasons,” stated the Chato District Commissioner adding that President Samia Suluhu Hassan has injected funds to ensure the project is completed in time.

“This year alone we received 480 million/- but previously also the project was injected with 700 million/-, totaling nearly 1.2 billion,” he said.

The Burigi-Chato Hotel project was initiated in 2020 but later stalled due to the global Covis-19 pandemic. The project resumed in 2023 and hotel should be up and running before 2025.

Constructed at the Rubambagwe shoreline of Lake Victoria in Chato, the Three-star modern hotel project is being undertaken by the Lake Zone base of National Service (JKT), the main contractor, in association with Agreneb Consult Limited of Dar-es-salaam as Service Engineers.

The Building Economics Department of the Ardhi University in Dar-es-salaam are the main consultant architects and Quantity Surveyors while the KEA Company Limited also from Dar, play the role of Structural and Civil Engineering for the Client, the Conservation Commissioner of Tanzania National Parks.

Abdul Kabeza the engineer from Suma JKT in the Lake Zone explained that the 11 billion/- three-Storey Hotel Project will have 20 Executive Suites and 10 Ordinary rooms each with its own private balcony overlooking the lake, though there are plans to also add a separate wing for presidential suites.

According to Kabeza the hotel will be the first in Tanzania and East Africa to feature a floating bar.

“It will also have its own residential supermarket, special arenas for water sports, two large swimming pools, volleyball and basketball field, tennis court and special rooms for indoor games as well as gymnastics,” added the Engineer.

Burigi-Chato three-star hotel is also planned to have four conference halls, making it ready to host meetings and other public functions.

On his part, the Assistant Conservation Commissioner for the Tanzania National Parks, Dr Imani Kikoti explained that the Burigi-Chato hotel will play a pivotal role in the recently hatched tourism strategic plan for the Lake Zone Circuit.

“There are five tourist hotspots in the zone including the Lake Victoria itself, shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the Rubondo Island National Park and the Burigi-Chato National Park,” said Dr Kikoti, adding the other two sites, Ibanda Kyerwa and Rumanyika Karagwe parks, located in Kagera region also complement the strategy.

“But the circuit is not limited to just Tanzania, because it is also networked with the Akagera National Park in Rwanda as well as tourism sites located on the Ugandan side of the border,” added Dr Kikoti who commands the Rubondo Island National Park which attracts more than 3500 tourists annually.