With the busy Christmas and New Year’s period now over, the hotels and resorts next major target is Valentine’s Day, which this year falling on a Friday.
Hospitality businesses are putting packages together already for those who are love struck or want to find love, and offers are presently being prepared for mail shots and social media advertising to have couples take a weekend getaway, to one of the coastal resorts or a game lodge or safari camp in one of the many national parks across the region.
Hotels in Kampala too are conjuring up their heart shaped menus for that special night on February 14th, when it will all be ‘Table for Two?’ wherever one goes, a pitiful night surely for single business travellers who have to sit on their own in a hotel restaurant surrounded by couples dressed in red and black.
‘This is a night when we cannot have enough tables for two in our restaurant. No one wants to sit down with strangers when they all are love struck and want to make an impression on their spouses or girlfriends. Sometimes two couples book together but it is not very common, most of our bookings and we have quite a few already, are for a table for two and the special menu that night. But as you say, single business people staying at the hotel will maybe feel out of place but for them we offer room service if they do not want to stand out on Valentine’s night all alone on their table. Other people might think they have been stood up perhaps so they might really chose room service that evening’ said a regular hotel source from Kampala, promising to send their Valentine’s Day programme within a few days.
Safari lodges in Uganda, as well as in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, will be offering special deals for the weekend, some inclusive of either air or road transport and especially the coast resorts are hoping for a weekend boom by those who can afford to take a loved one away for a few days. Be sure to watch your social media scene, or this space, to take advantage of early bird bookings as tables for two will sure sell out quickly and a Valentine’s dinner at a fast food joint or takeaway as a last alternative would come with a key to the doghouse.
