Hilton eyes Mombasa, as its tourism potential blooms

By Philip Mwakio

Mombasa's tourism potential will soon rise even further after an international hotel brand chain announced plans to set up base there.

Tourism Minister, Najib Balala said that Hilton international chain will put up two modern hotels in Mombasa’s North Coast.

"I have met with representatives of the hotel chain including architects who are putting up the architectural designs as they conduct a survey plan before resuming construction,’’ Balala told The Standard in Mombasa.

Despite having a commanding strength in tourist levels, the few international hotel chains in the country are primarily based in Nairobi.

The Coast has only one international chain in the Neptune Sentido Palm Beach, which has one hotel in the North Coast and three others in the South Coast.

The Minister did not divulge when the project work would kick off, but pointed out that international investors in the multi-billion tourism industry were eager to set camp in Kenya.

 

Rich history

Tourism players at the Coast have for a long time complained over the lack of international hotel chains.

Meanwhile, the Sarova Hotel chain is giving visitors staying at its acclaimed Sarova Salt Lick and Taita Lodges a chance to relive both the First and Second world wars.

Visitors will get an opportunity to tour former battlefields in addition to their normal itinerary.

The area, which lies within the Taita Hills Game Sanctuary, has a colonial castle and world war military paraphenelia clearly marked. Historians believe that this is where the British Military engaged in a fierce battle with the German Army over control of large swathes of East Africa’s territory.

Mr Willy Mwadillo, the unit Taita Manager told a group of journalists on a familiarisation trip to the lodges that there was rich history to learn from what historians perceived to have been a large battlefield in the Taita County.

Kenya’s tourism industry, which took a beating in 2008 after a flawed election led to violence, and saw tourist numbers drop dramatically, has rebounded, and is on the road to fully recovery.