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· The economic fallout of COVID 19 on Kenya’s tourism sector is taking its toll on hotel industry.
· The InterContinental Hotel in Kenya in a notice to its employees, the hotel’s general manager Oliver Geyer informed the decision of the firm to terminate all workers and end its Nairobi hotel lease
The economic fallout of COVID 19 on Kenya’s tourism sector is taking its toll on hotel industry. The InterContinental Hotel in Kenya in a notice to its employees, the hotel’s general manager Oliver Geyer informed the decision of the firm to terminate all workers and end its Nairobi hotel lease. The InterContinental Hotel was already under stress even before the pandemic outbreak. In 2019 it was declared technically insolvent since it could not service its debts that stood at Sh717 million. The 389-room InterContinental Hotel Nairobi under a 99-year lease has been operating since April 1967.
The notice also added that InterContinental Hotels Corporation Limited is considering a permanent closure of the Intercontinental Nairobi and winding up all its operations in the Republic of Kenya. The Kenya government and Kenya Hotel Properties (KHP), the holding company that owns InterCon own 33.83 percent each of the share. The termination of the lease means that KHP will look for another operator to run the strategically located five-star hotel.
Kenya’s revenue loss from tourism is estimated at Sh80 billion, about half of last year’s total. A few weeks back, another iconic hotel in Nairobi, The Fairmont Norfolk also declared its decision to lose is property.
