Mombasa’s Pride Inn hotel taps into conference tourism

KENYA: Mombasa County has a new entrant in hotel business, the Pride Inn Paradise Beach Resort and Convention Centre.

According to the hotel's General Manager, Imtyaz Mirza, the opening of the resort has filled the gap in beach tourism market for resort conferencing. The hotel will house a convention centre with a capacity to hold 4,500 delegates.

"Pride Inn Paradise is undergoing a phased opening with 128 rooms opened during the festive season and a further 108 rooms to be opened soon," the GM said.

The hotel will officially open in March 2016. Mirza said, the facility will also usher in a new concept of a women only accommodation block wing.

In total, the resort will have 300 rooms including presidential suite, deluxe rooms and Malkia rooms.

"This concept is dedicated for women travellers. The resort has facilities to cater for all segments of the existing population," Mirza said.

The Pride Inn Group is a local hotel chain, which also plans to expand into other countries in the region. The group plans to open other boutique properties in Nyanza, Rift Valley and in Kigali, Rwanda. It's also exploring investment opportunities in game parks to set up lodges.

Mirza says the hotel is also equipping its employees with new skills.

"Part of the development at Pride Inn Hotels is the launch of customised certification programme in collaboration with reputed online education partners internationally, and scholarship scheme for all management staff for online degree from Switzerland," Mirza said.

Mirza commended the re-appointment of Najib Balala to serve in the 'standalone' tourism ministry.