PrideInn Group has acquired Strategic City Hotel in Nairobi as it continues with its expansion plans inKenya, targeted at having a footprint in all 47 counties.
The group takes over from Azure Hospitality Group under the ongoing management contract that was initiated in 2020, at an undisclosed amount.
Dubbed 'PrideInn Plaza', the facility boasts 64 luxury rooms and suites and nine conference rooms of50,000 square metres meeting space.
“With the ongoing recovery of the Kenyan economy, local and international companies have revived conferences. That is where we come in as PrideInn Plaza, strategically located to host conferences from any part of the country, with a conference capacity of more than 2,000 business,” PrideInn’s Group managing director Hasnain Noorani said.
Apart from business meetings, the hotel is ideal for tourists staying in Nairobi or those intending to transit to other towns, management said.
“The facility enjoys direct access to and from Kenya’s main international airport, the Jomo KenyattaInternational Airport, via the Nairobi expressway and also enjoys proximity to the Nairobi CentralBusiness District,” Noorani added.
Management also noted that the facility is ideal for people making a stop-over on their way destinations such as Mombasa, the Amboseli National Park, Tsavo National Park and the Namanga Border.
Management takeover of PrideInn Plaza comes a month after the group acquired PrideInn MaraCamp from Azure Hospitality Group.
The facility is located in Maasai Mara, Narok County.
It sits on a 25-acre piece of land along River Talek banks.
The camp comprises 41 cottages, a 70-seater deck restaurant, a 700 hotel room capacity and 15 safari tents.
Noorani said the decision to take up new hotels with Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) system approach comes as the tourism sector shows continued improvement in post-Covid recovery period.
The annual Tourism Sector Performance Report 2021, by the Tourism Research Institute (TRI), shows that last year, international arrivals for business events and meetings was 229,804, accounting for 26.40 per cent of the total arrivals.
Total visitor arrivals to Kenya grew 53 per cent compared to the previous year, closing at 870,465 , from 567,848.
The business and MICE numbers were close to the 299,802 visitors who came into the country for holiday, which has traditionally been the main reason of visit.
It was the third purpose of visit after the 257,357 who came into the country to visit family and friends, TRI data shows.
