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By Editorial team
Businesses in Nairobi are primed to endure a weekend long TICAD convention – which is offering enticing taste of opportunities for hotels and car rental firms who are tagging along.
The Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) Summit will be held at Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi on 27th -28th August 2016 and is poised discourse partnerships on trade and economic development between Africa and Japan.
Most hotels in Nairobi are nearly 100 per cent booked (occupancy) in anticipation of the forum which officially starts tomorrow – that’s up 60 per cent higher compared to UNCTAD forum also held in Nairobi this year.
The demand for hotel rooms has been rising since the start of the week with hoteliers stepping up efforts to cash in on TICAD which is being held on African soil since its inception in 1993.
Pride Inn hotel in Westlands, a 3-star chain of hotels is presently booked to 100 percent in terms of occupancies since Thursday ahead of the conference.
“The demand is super good since the week started from the number of delegates coming in and we are having a bit of yield management (to mean pricing accordingly). And we are fully booked until next week,” said the Group chief executive of Pride Inn hotels Hasnain Noorani.
He said early bookings began earnestly on Monday with most rooms currently full until Monday when most of the delegates will be checking out. The hotel’s capacity is over 100.
The visitors are willing to stay in the area and travel just a few minutes to the venue according to a spokesperson at Hilton hotel, a 4-star hotel in Nairobi’s CBD.
The rush is not for car hire operators like Abba Tours and Car Hire Company who are yet to reap benefits from the convention and are already having a ‘bad day.’
“Business is quite slow for car hire business, but we are still optimistic it will pick up as we go into the weekend,” said the firm’s representative Daniel Rurua.
Another car hire firm, Glory Tours & Safaris admits of experiencing slow business saying it’s ‘quite slow.’