Hoteliers Now Target Corporate

By Allan Rotich Posted 04 May 2006 @ 07:04 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Nairobi (IBTimes.com) - Coast hoteliers are coming into grips with effects of low tourism season that negatively impacted on earnings.The operators have now shifted their focus on conference tourism to boost bed occupancy and sustain their operations. A survey by The Standard revealed that most hotels at the Coast were busy with conference guests instead of the usual leisure tourists.

The low season that began last month is expected to come to an end later in July when the high season sets in. At the five-star Club Sun ‘N Sand Beach Hotel, General Manager, Andimilleh Makumbi said that the number of tourists had drastically dropped.‘’We are handling mainly conference guests,’’ Makumbi explained.

The hotel with 300 rooms has six conference facilities with the biggest taking in 300 participants. In total the facilities can handle up to 500 people. Nyali Beach Hotel General Manager, Patrick Mwangi, said conference tourism was the only way out for survival during the low season. He said his hotel has already had several booking for meeting, which it hoped would help sustain its operations during the low season.

At his hotel too are several conferences taking place. Other hotels that have shifted focus on conference tourism include Travellers Beach, Whitesands, Leisure Lodge Resort and Plaza Beach Hotel in Bamburi north Coast.

In the meantime, a Watamu tourist hotel that specialises in Italian clients is set to expand its accommodation facilities. Club Temple Point Resort, a member of the Venta Club Group that has 60 hotels in various parts of the world announced on Wednesday that it was putting up additional rooms to cater for increased demand.