Easter’s Cheer On Tourism But Low Rates Shift Flow to Egypt

Mazera Ndurya

22 April 2011

Nairobi — The coast is teeming with activities to mark the Easter Holiday, with hotels and entertainment spots already doing the best to reap from the occasion, which also ushers in the gloomy low season in the tourism industry.

Most hotels and cottages in the north and south coast have recorded 100 per cent occupancy, thanks to the domestic market.

Sarova Whitesands general manager, Mohamed Hersi, said his hotel is busy during the entire season, after recording full-bed occupancy with guests mainly from the domestic market.

“We are enjoying the fruits of the domestic leisure market with visitors from Nairobi, other major towns upcountry and across the border in Uganda and Tanzania.

“We will be fully booked throughout the season, but this will drop significantly at the start of the low season. This is because, immediately after Easter, schools will be reopening,” Mr Hersi said.

In the south coast, hotels and cottages are also doing good business and according to the proprietor of Masai Cottages and Masai Bureau Nightclub, David Ndirangu, there will be no room left for accommodation.

However, he added, with the anticipated influx of people, the hotel has upped the entertainment menu, bringing in various entertainment groups.

But as other hotels enjoy the boom, several others in Malindi and Kilifi have started the low season earlier than expected, and closed down for lack of visitors.

One of the hotel managers said they were expecting a boom as usual during the Easter Holidays, but this did not happen and he blames it on a decision by tour operators to divert clients to Egypt and European countries.

Mr Daniel Mwita of Garoda Resort in Watamu said the upheavals that rocked Egypt and other Arab countries had been a blessing as the hotels were fully-booked throughout the season, but things have changed and hopes dashed.

“After the upheavals in Egypt, which is a short distance from Europe compared to Kenya, tour operators got a better deal when Egyptians reduced their rates by about 30 per cent. Italy is our only market, but we have realised it is very unreliable because before we could start celebrating the fortunes in terms of bookings for Easter, tour operators withdrew bookings in favour of Egypt. For them, it means saving money in air transport and reduced rates,” he said.

Mr Mwita says the hotels and many others have been forced to go to the drawing board and shift over-reliance on the Italian market to others Scandinavian countries, Germany and Poland to make the business tick.

The chairman of the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers, Coast region Titus Kangangi said the Italian market for which majority of the Malindi hotels depend on has been very tricky thus calling for a change of tact.

“But the problem is not even the allure of other countries with attractive rates, most of the investors in Malindi are also Italians and do not trust Kenyan managers to run their hotels when they also take their vacation and that is why they close the hotels.

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