Sponsors go on recce, Nakuru hotels warned against price hikes
Africa rally champion Carl Tundo with former International Automobile Federation (FIA) vice president Surinder Thatthi have a look at one of the cars on display at the Nation Media Group Motor Expo at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on June 3, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The representatives from the sponsoring companies were taken through the recce briefing by Biko Gwendo, head of marketing at the WRC Safari Rally headquarters.
Officials of the WRC Safari Rally took the event’s sponsors on a recce of the rally route on Saturday as the Nakuru Country Tourism Association (NCTA) warned hoteliers against unwarranted accommodation price hikes.
The representatives from the sponsoring companies were taken through the recce briefing by Biko Gwendo, head of marketing at the WRC Safari Rally headquarters.
NTV presenter Amina Abdi Rabar has a chat with Kenyan rally legend Azar Anwar the Nation Media Group Motor Expo at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on June 4, 2022.
The June 23-26 round of the World Rally Championship has received overwhelming interest this year with applications for media accreditation also surpassing last year’s numbers almost threefold.
The deadline for accreditation application for Kenyan media was June 1 while foreign journalists must apply by June 8.
Some of the hoteliers are under the spotlight over the increment of rates ahead of the WRC event.
Speaking to Nation Sport, NCTA chairman David Mwangi called on the stakeholders to maintain normal rates.
“We don’t want to have a scenario where hoteliers are cashing on the high number of visitors to hike the rates,” he said.
Mwangi said most of the members were compliant with the rates, but blamed unscrupulous hoteliers who are doubling or tripling their prices.
“We are going to expose those who will be taking advantage of the influx of foreign and local tourists who will be gracing the WRC event,” said Mwangi.
Some of the players in the industry who sought anonymity admitted that during last year’s event, the rates were “exploitative, with some of the hoteliers charging five times the normal rates."
“I know of a hotel that charged Sh70,000 instead of the normal Sh18,000 during the event, it was that manipulative,” said the hotel worker.
But Mwangi said they would demand to be furnished with the rates catalogue ahead of the event and, where possible, act appropriately.
“It not just a verbal warning, we shall be demanding to peruse the charge catalogue for accommodation at the various hotels. That will be an impromptu exercise,” he revealed.
He, at the same time, said they were better prepared to host the event with their 616 members having undergone training ahead of the rally.
“Compared to last year, we are better equipped in terms of personnel and other logistics,” added Mwangi.
He said the industry has been recovering from the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic with the sector being the biggest beneficiary of the both the WRC round and the Equator Rally, a round of the African Rally Championship.
Most of the hotels, he revealed, had been fully booked ahead of the Safari Rally with the hotel industry bouncing back largely due to the global event.
Last year, the number of foreign guests was capped at 10,000 and close to 100,000 local visitors during the three-day event.
“We have hoteliers who have put up modern tents to accommodate a high number of rally fans. Last year, we had people spending nights in their cars, we don’t want a repeat of the same,” assured the hospitality boss.
