By Tobias Chanji
MOMBASA, KENYA: Tourism business on the Kenyan South Coast has plunged with hotels recording very low bed occupancy.
Although April to August is traditionally low season, experts say this year’s downturn in the South Coast is particularly biting due to lingering and anticipated jitters from the just concluded elections with bed occupancy in many hotels dropping to historic levels.
To beat the downturn, hotels are applying various innovative ways, including sports tourism to attract customers.
Bed occupancy has fallen to below 20 per cent in most hotels occasioning lay-offs and shutdowns for repairs.
Meanwhile, in areas like Diani on the South Coast, armed robberies are being blamed for a fraction of the drop in tourist arrivals.
After hosting an international beach volleyball tournament at the weekend that saw bed occupancy jump to 65 per cent, Jacaranda Indian Ocean Beach Resort is planning to put up a beach stadium in support of sports tourism.
“Having such a percentage and considering that this is a low season is a plus for us. The Rwandan team has beaten Kenya yet they do not have a beach. In support of this we and our sponsors are going to build beach stadiums that will be used for sports and recreation for both foreign and domestic tourism,” said the hotel’s General Manager Gomeri Kombo yesterday.
Mr Kombo noted that sports tourism was an avenue to market the country abroad and added that his hotel will be bidding to host most of the beach games s to tap into the same market.
“We can have these stadiums that will also include other sports and people can use them without any fee so as to promote what we have,” Kombo said.
