Planhotel Malindi resort of hotel trio in Coastal Kenya has reopened its Diamonds Dream of Africa, Sandies Malindi Dream Garden, and Sandies Tropical Village – to both domestic and international guests.
Occupancy started at 60 percent on Saturday according to Alexander Zissimatos, the general manager who said the re-opening has been positive.
“We hope it continues for the rest of the year,” he said.
PlanHotel is renowned worldwide for its unique combination of local tradition and Italian style in both its design and guest services. They have properties in Malindi, Kenya; Zanzibar, Tanzania; Mozambique; Maldives, Lugano, Switzerland; and Cortona, Italy.
As a member of the Small Luxury Hotel of the World (SLH), Diamonds Dream of Africa is incorporating the Stay Safe. Stay Small initiative, offering enhanced health and detailed safety guidelines launched by SLH for all its 520 member hotels in 90 countries.
In order to safeguard these standards, the Kenyan coastal resort (through SLH) has entered a partnership with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) for its hotels to pursue the GBAC STAR™ accreditation.
GBAC STAR accreditation provides third-party validation to ensure the three hotels have the proper cleaning protocols, disinfection techniques, and work practices in place.
In addition to GBAC accreditation, Planhotel Malindi has initiated a 24-hours vacated room turnaround programme.
“After the last guest has stayed, no one, including our staff will enter the room for 24 hours”, Zissimatos said.
“Further, our food and beverage set up will ensure social distancing between tables. We look forward to welcoming back our guests and assure them of a safe holiday”, he adds.
In June, Planhotel announced a transferrable Holidaybonds offer valid for two years at any of their Kenyan properties. One bond covers the value of one-night accommodation for two, on an all-inclusive basis (all meals and drinks) at 50 percent of the cost.
Knight Frank’s Kenya Market Update for the 1st Half 2020, reveals that the sector became one of the hardest hit due to the pandemic and has suffered from hotel and flight cancellations, business disruptions, and job losses.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the tourism sector over the first half of 2020 suffered a Ksh 80 billion loss from tourism revenue.
Tourist arrivals decreased by 19 percent to 2.9 million tourists in the first quarter of 2020 from 3.65 million tourists over the same period in 2019.
March recorded the lowest number of tourist arrivals in the country since 2014.
Kenya’s hospitality sector is projected to be on a recovery path as domestic tourism slowly picks up due to the easing of movement restrictions and the resumption of international passenger flights.
“We expect this trend to continue into the second half of 2020 due to additional government support to restore destination confidence, revised tourism packages, easing of restrictions from major source markets and aggressive domestic, regional and international tourism marketing,” says Knight Frank.
The Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) Market Perception Survey conducted in July, 60 percent of the hotels indicated they would be open to correspond with the return to external air-travel.
“As you can imagine, that has been the hardest hit sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is interesting that 60 percent of hotels indicated that they would be open when international flights return after August 1,” CBK Governor Dr, Patrick Njoroge said on Thursday.
Average forward bookings project growth with hotels indicating mean bookings of 17 percent in September and a maximum 56 percent from two and 10 percent respectively in July.
“It’s interesting to see forward bookings. We would want this to be much higher but at least this is the beginning. Obviously the bookings await confirmation. Nevertheless, this is an interesting snippet into the sector,” added Dr. Njoroge.
International flights resumed Saturday with the Ministry of Transport establishing a ‘safe flights’ list of 19 countries whose citizens will not be subject to quarantine upon arrival into the country.
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