Labasa will soon have its very first internationally- branded hotel through its partnership with international hotel management brand Ramada Encore who will manage and operate Damodar Group’s 40-room hotel at Damodar City in Labasa. The hotel — to be known as Ramada Encore by Wyndham at Damodar City Labasa — is predicted to elevate the tourism sector in the town and in Fiji’s tourism unit. Damodar Group’s chief executive officer Div Damodar made the announcement this week and in an interview with this newspaper, spoke about the spillover benefits from the development.
“The beautiful part about this is that we strongly believe that this is the catalyst of bringing other brands into Vanua Levu, we are now setting a trend, and we will see that happening very soon,” he said. He said the project would reflect in the town’s economic status especially within the businesses, tourism and employment rate as well as the local township. “This is the beginning of other brands coming into Vanua Levu.
“We’ve seen that in Damodar City Labasa complex, we went and did a $60million complex development and got over 60 tenants, we also got more than 1500 people employed directly and indirectly. “So, with the hotel coming, the brand itself changes everything about Vanua Levu. So today is another level of what we have been planning for the Damodar City in Labasa,” he said.
Mr Damodar said the initial plan did not included the partnership with the Wyndham chain of hotels. H.