Hotels at the Kenyan Coast are increasingly losing to Zanzibar international visitors who arrive by charter flights.
Following terrorism attacks which hit
the country in 2014, a large number of tourists chose the Tanzanian
archipelago and have since been making return visits giving Diani,
Malindi and Watamu a wide berth.
Likewise, during the Likoni clashes in
1997, some hotel owners in the region relocated their investments to
Zanzibar and in its wake repeat guests also shifted their holidays to
the island.
Other factors believed to have given
Zanzibar an edge is that the island has modern hotels while standards in
most facilities at the Coast have degenerated due to lack of
renovations. Some were built almost a half a century ago.
Although it is currently high tourist
season, most hotels across the region have a low number of international
guests at below 10 per cent compared to numbers o
f between 20 and 50 per cent in the peak
period of 2011. Somak Travel General Manager Paul Kurgat, said the
majority of the international tourists flown to Mombasa by charter
airlines are on transit to Zanzibar.
“One of the factors which have
contributed to low number of international tourists at the Coast is that
the charter airlines leave behind a few passengers in Mombasa while
many are taken to Zanzibar,” he said.
As a result, he said many hotels at the
Coast have a low number of international guests. Currently, charter
flights from Europe to Mombasa are eight a week compared with 40 in the
same period during the peak period of 2011.
Charter airlines operating flights to
Mombasa are German’s Condor, Small Planet from Poland as well as
Meridiana Fly and Neosair from Italy. When Condor reintroduced flights
from Munich to Mombasa in June, the inauguration flight had 240
passengers, out of whom only 90 remained in Mombasa while the rest were
on transit to Zanzibar.
Due to terrorism, Condor crew who used to stay in Mombasa over the years relocated to Zanzibar
. They, however, switched their stay
back to Mombasa last year after the UK and the US authorities lifted
travel advisories against Mombasa and other coastal towns.
In an interview with Smart Company, Mr
Kurgat said many tourists, who arrive at the Moi International Airport,
Mombasa, by charter flights head to Zanzibar for leisure. Not affected
He said Nairobi and upcountry tourist hotspots were not affected as many
international airlines operate scheduled flights to Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport.
To address the challenge, Mr Kurgat said
Kenya should continue to convince leading tour operators and agents in
overseas markets that the country is safe. Severin Sea Lodge resident
manager James Owiti conceded that the bulk of the tourists who arrive at
the local airport by charter flights are making a stopover to the
neighbouring country.
“We have occupancy of 65 per cent, but
foreign guests are only five per cent owing to the large number of
charter passengers being flown to Zanzibar,” he said.
On the other hand, Kenya Association of
Hotelkeeper and Caterers (KAHC) Coast executive officer Sam Ikwaye
attributed the shift of tourists to some investors who relocated from
Diani, Malindi and Watamu to Tanzania.
“During the Likoni clashes in 1997 there
are some investors who left South Coast for Zanzibar and as a result
the guests, who used to come here, also relocated there,” he said.
Another factor that makes Zanzibar comparatively more attractive is its
new hotels.
“Zanzibar has gained popularity since
most of the hotels there are new while here we have some hotels which
were built many years ago and are in dire need of upgrading,” said Mr
Ikwaye.
However, the KAHC official defended
hotel-owners, saying many are unable to refurbish their facilities due
to poor business over the past several years. “Investors in the hotel
industry have been operating at a loss for the past three years owing to
an international tourist drought,” he said.
Mr Ikwaye called on the Tourism Finance
Corporation to offer more affordable loans to investors for them to
revamp their facilities
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