Lion Park Resort, the amusement centre south of Gaborone, said it will spend millions of Pula in the next couple of months to increase its capacity as it moves to be the biggest entertainment centre in the country.
Johan Weideman, who is part of Targeted Solutions, a management company appointed by the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) to run the facility, said the new look center will include a trail-blazing roller coaster.
“In the next 10 months, we are going to invest P22 million,” Weideman said this week. “We need to get youngsters to this park and retain them,” he added.
Through BDC, Lion Park, which is Botswana’s own Walt Disney World Resort, is working on becoming the country’s top entertainment center in the next couple of months.
This follows also on the five year strategic plan aimed at adding additional attractions prepared by LP Amusement.
“It is vital to drive customer retention with a focus on repeat visitation throughout the year,” Weideman said.
“Furthermore, the development of additional business drivers and diversifying of the product to move away from leisure business only forms a critical element of the strategic plan.”
Already, a camping site has been completed.
The current popular features of the center include a wave pool, big wheel, star dancer, Charlie go-go, merry-go-round and 4 x 4 tracks.
The additional items approved for Lion Park include the roller coaster, science center, conference center, upgrade speed and supper tube tower, paintball war arena, mini golf, quad track with off road buggies and a curio shop.
The length of the track of the planned roller coaster expected will be 592 m with the highest point of 24.5 m and speed exceeding 60 km/ hour.
Lion Park Resort, which sits on a portion (26 hactas) of BDC over 1000 hactas land on the outskirts of the city, came into being in 2008 after the Board approved that an amusement be set through LP Amusement Center.
It consists of an amusement center, entertainment area and animal enclosures with two lions.
Lion Park plans to move the lion enclosure and convert it into a drive-in lion enclosure and also introduce more predators, including hyena, cheetah and wild dog. A lodge is also planned for the future.
Lion Park is a seasonal entertainment area, but in a good month like December, Weideman told Sunday Standard, they can have 30,000 visitors. This translates into P1. 5 million in entrance fees during this period.
Entry into the centre is P55 for both adults and kids.
