Written By Ramadhan Kambi | |
Another cap in the recognition of the hotel industry in Malindi, Kilifi County was evident after a luxurious tourism resort in Malindi won a prestigious award as Africa’s leading all-inclusive resort in 2021 by the World Travel Awards (WTA).
Diamond dream of Africa, owned and managed by the Swiss-based Plan group of hotels also won other awards for their resorts in Mozambique, the Maldives, and Switzerland.
Authorities said the diamond dream of Africa that is a member of Small Luxurious Hotel of the world came up with the initiative of Safe Stay Small initiative that offered detailed safety guidelines Launched by all 520 member hotels in 90 countries in July last year.
According to Mr Alexander Zissimatos the Hotels General manager, the award is not given by a panel of judges but guests and other people in the industry who voted for them to say that they are the best in Africa.
Speaking at the resort in Malindi the GM said they managed to get the most votes against their other competitors and won terming at fantastic.
“These awards are different it’s a voting award it’s not an award for marketing promotion so it is a fantastic thing that they won and to be the best resort in Africa is an amazing thing,” he said.
Plan resorts he said have been doing all-inclusive for more than 20 years and it has proved wonderful to guests.
Mr Zissimatos said Diamond dream of Africa is a five-star resort and they have an extra value for all-inclusive packages which are not found from their competitors.
He said the resort is a boutique hotel and there are two other resorts Sandies tropical village and Dream gardens which are bigger and family-friendly for fun.
“The boutique property is nice it’s private, it’s upmarket and we have a lot of clients that enjoy the facility here in Malindi,” said the General Manager.
Currently, since the curfew was lifted, he said Malindi was booming again in the tourism sector as nightclubs are open, beach parties have started and there is a lot more movement within the resort town.
He said Malindi survives on tourism and largely on the nightlife so by lifting the curfew it’s roaring back to life.
Zissimatos said they are fully booked on Christmas which is a good move as they will be busy throughout the festive and it’s difficult to get space.
To him, Kenyans have really provided big support in making the industry rise as they are coming in large numbers to the Coast for holidays.
Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi said the tourism sector has gone a hard time due to the Covid-19 pandemic but now the sector is beginning to recover.
Kingi said they have been working closely with the Ministry of Health to make sure the uptake of vaccines in the county is high so as to make sure guests who come here feel safe in the destination.
“We are partnering with the hotels to release their workers because they are the ones who meet directly with the guests, we want all of them to be vaccinated,” he said.
He said once all the hotel workers are vaccinated, they will continue vaccinating the general public all over the county.
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