Zimbabwean Hotelier Dr. Mati Nyazema

Photo credit: Mbano Manor Hotel

With a vision to build a boutique luxury in her home country of Zimbabwe, Dr. Mati Nyazema opened the doors to Mbano Manor Hotel Victoria Falls in 2020.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Dr. Mati began her professional career as a journalist and later worked in PR and marketing for British Airways. She joined a hospitality group, which relocated her once again to South Africa, where she worked for more than 15 years.

The hospitality veteran spent years creating memorable experiences for guests before setting out on her own to build property, Mbano Manor Hotel Victoria Falls.

“I think it was creeping up on me slowly, but I just never almost didn’t want to acknowledge it.  Rewind to when I was young, I actually came to Victoria Falls to visit with my father. In school, all of us learned about Victoria Falls, the largest waterfalls in the world. There was always something special about me, or I felt because I had been to Victoria Falls,” she shares.

“There was always some affinity with Victoria Falls and then I ended up working in tourism and then literally within the first two months, your first trip Victoria Falls… I traveled a lot to Victoria Falls so I have always loved the place.”

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Taking Mbano Manor Hotel Victoria Falls from Vision to Reality

After leaving the hospitality group, Victoria Falls came calling Dr. Mati once again.  This time for a different reason.

In 2016, while talking to her husband about retirement, he asked what was “her next career,” and she said, “You know I would love to own a property in Victoria Falls.” His response, “So why don’t you?”

That same year she set out to do just that. 

In our 3-part series, she tells her inspiring story about receiving a vision and the hard work, rejection and faith it took to open Mbano Manor Hotel Victoria Falls in February 2020, which was then hit with a global pandemic.

Being from Zimbabwe, did that make the journey easier?  Was there excitement from others about a new property coming to Victoria Falls?  How did Dr. Mati’s previous career set her up to be successful as a hotelier?

These are all questions we get answered during our conversations, plus more you don’t want to miss.

Listen and then plan to visit Mbano Manor Hotel Victoria Falls by going online for more details. You can also follow along on Instagram for property news and highlights.

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