Fairmont Mt Kenya Safari Club is back to business after a two-year closure
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts have reopened the iconic Mount Kenya Safari Club after a two-year closure following dwindling footfall due to travel restrictions induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This becomes the third property for the Group to resume operations after Fairmont Mara Safari Club and the Fairmont The Norfolk, in Nairobi.
“We have resumed operations at Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club and we are working with 125 workers down from 138 when we closed operations in April 2020,” Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Country General Manager Mehdi Morad told Business Daily.
The hotel run by French hospitality giant Accor closed doors on April 1, 2020, and sent most of its staff home the pandemic paralyzed global travel even as government restrictions on opening hours negatively impacted the business.
Nairobi’s Fairmont The Norfolk reopened for business in April, this year, after a 21-month closure of the hotel due to coronavirus crisis.
Its subsidiary Fairmont Mara Safari Club reopened its doors last year seeking to tap tourism revenues for the last migration season.
Fairmount Mt Kenya Safari Club joins a growing list of hotels that are springing back from Covid-19 cold this year.
Read also: Eyeing luxury safari segment, Marriot to set camp in Kenya’s Mara
In May, Five-Star Radisson Blu Hotel in UppperHill resumed business under a new management following acquisition of the establishment.
“We are thrilled to bring the Radisson brand back to Upper Hill, where it will serve as an elite hotel for both business and leisure guests,” said Russel Storey, Radisson Blu Upper Hill, General Manager.
In March this year, Marriott International signed an agreement with Baraka Lodges Limited to open its first luxury safari lodge in Maasai Mara, Narok County.
The JW Marriott Maasai Mara Lodge is expected to open doors next year and will be Marriott’s first luxury safari property in Africa.
According to the Central Bank Hotel survey carried out in May, about 41 percent of players in the hospitality business expected to attain the pre-Covid levels of operation by the end of the year 2022.
The study shows that foreign clienteles continue to improve towards the pre-COVID-19 levels and forward hotel bookings have improved particularly for Mombasa even as hotels remain concerned about increased costs of input due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
