Kisumu — Smaller hotels in Kisumu and its environs have missed cashing out from the hotel business that is expected to boom during the Africities Summit that kicked off this week in the lakeside city.
According to Robinson Anyal, the chairperson of Lake Victoria Tourism Association which covers 14 counties in Western Kenya says there was a high expectation which has been dimmed as bigger hotels are seemingly maximizing from the five-day event.
Anyal says the smaller hotels had put their houses in order in anticipation of the more than guests attending the conference.
"As hoteliers and those who play a role in the industry, we appreciate the organizers for the event, however, there are areas we have had challenges, a lot of investors put their efforts in renovations/refurbishment ahead of the summit but they have little or no bookings," he said.
He said that hotels in the 4,5 stars category were fully booked almost one week to the start of the event while those in the lower categories did not have much to celebrate.
According to his analysis, Anyal says the majority of the delegates were VIPs who opted for high-end hotels.
He says some hotels did not reach the 50 percent bookings and they are within the City of Kisumu.
Being a manager of Parkview hotel, he noted that of all 45 rooms, only 37 rooms have been booked. "but reports from other hotels in the city indicate fewer bookings, their beds are empty," he said.
The top hotels in Kisumu City include Sarova Imperial, Ciala Resort, Acacia, West Bestern, Sovereign, Pinecone, Le Savannah, Kisumu Hotel, Vittoria, Nyanza Club, Sunset amongst others.
Anyal says hotels in the neighboring counties and those falling within Kisumu County had expected an overflow of delegates and were looking ahead to tap on the numbers.
"All the delegates have been booked in Kisumu City and most hotels too in Kisumu are not fully booked, so the numbers were hyped," he said.
The standards were set high for the hoteliers and they were accredited by the Tourism Regulatory Authority after short listings.
"Some hoteliers were advised to do certain things, those adjustments had financial inputs. To some extent some got a return on those investments, those in the lower carder in the hotel industry did not get much," he said.
Speaking to Capital Newsbeat on Tuesday, the second day of the Conference, Anyal says in future, logistics in transportation should be given to the local investors, as a first priority.
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In addition, he decried that investors in the tourism and transportation industry were left hanging as most vehicles being used are from Nairobi.
"The drivers ferrying the delegates do not know the geography of this city, they can't locate hotels," he said.
James Wandia, who operates a taxi in Kisumu, says they had hoped to benefit from the transportation of the delegates to the conference venue and back to the hotels.
"We had hoped we would swim in business. It is business as usual, we see big cars, big buses ferrying the delegates, we missed out," he said.
According to Anyal, it is important to always work with homegrown solutions, giving opportunities to the people around before outsourcing.
"The tour operators in Kisumu added more fleets, some hired out better vehicles, but there is no business," he said.
