East Africa: Hotel standards on Kenya’s coast criticised

12 Aug 2016 - by Mathias Ringa

The Tourism Regulatory Authority says standards at hotels along Kenya’s coast have degenerated after only three establishments were rated as five-star and eight were rated as four-star.

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The Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) has decried degeneration of hotel standards at the Kenya coast.

According to hotel classification results that were published in a Kenya gazette notice on August 5, only three establishments at the Kenya coast were rated as five-star, and eight as four-star.

The coast boasts more than 300 hotels in the seaside resort towns of Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi counties.

TRA Director General, Lagat Kipkorir, said the classification results were evidence that hotel standards in the region had degenerated as there was no hotel from Mombasa that featured in the five-star rating.

Kipkorir urged hotel owners to take advantage of the duty exemption on imported building materials to renovate their hotels. He also called on them to source funding from banks to enable them upgrade their facilities.

“There is need for investors to refurbish their hotels, especially at the coast, as our classification results have shown that standards have gone down,” Kipkorir said.

Kenya’s Tourism Minister, Najib Balala, has also, on several occasions, urged hotel owners at the coast to upgrade their establishments.

However, Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Coast Executive Officer, Sam Ikwaye, pointed out that some hotel owners were unable to renovate their facilities due to lack of business. “It should be noted that for the past three years, hotels had been operating at a loss as holidaymakers were hard to come by,” he said. As a result, he said, investors lacked capital for financing upgrades.

Ikwaye said there was a need for the Tourism Finance Corporation to offer soft loans to hotel owners so that they could renovate their facilities to international standards.

A hotelier told Tourism Update that the majority of tourists who arrived at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, were in transit to Zanzibar, while only a few remained in the region.

Tourism Update is increasing its coverage of destinations outside South Africa. Do you have news in East Africa? Send your news to editor@tourismupdate.co.za.