The Kenyan capital may have a less than savoury reputation, but that’s not stopping it from riding high during the recession, says Michelle Mannion.
When you come to Nairobi on a business trip, it’s best to leave your British need for speed at the visa counter when you arrive, because things will get done in their own sweet time. Whether it’s clearing the visa queue or nudging your way through the notoriously bad traffic, it’s best to factor in at least double the time you’d normally allow.
The laid-back nature of the Kenyans took a while for Londoner Daniel Ebo, area director of sales and marketing for Intercontinental Hotels Group in Africa, to get used to when he moved to Nairobi last year, having spent seven years working across the Middle East. “Doing business here is the most interesting [I’ve encountered],” he says. “Kenyans on the whole are quite passive, and having worked all over the world, I sometimes wonder how they manage to get things done.” He cites the ability to factor in delays and follow up correspondence as some of the most important skills you can have.
Nevertheless, the Nairobians certainly are getting things done. Ebo is keen to point out that “the growth and opportunities here outweigh any frustrations”, and there is certainly a tangible sense of this gregarious city being on the up. The streets bustle with besuited business people, there’s plenty of construction going on, and the Intercontinental’s lobby buzzes with activity.
“The first quarter of this year was the best in the hotel’s 40-year history,” Ebo says. He reports that the second quarter wasn’t quite so good as panic spread about the worldwide recession, but as Africans began to realise that they hadn’t been as affected as other regions, business picked up again.
“There’s a lot happening in Nairobi,” Ebo says. “It’s the central hub of Africa, so wherever people need to head to, they come here first.” And as the continent’s UN base, and the prime location for conferences in East Africa – the Kenyatta International Conference Centre is a striking building on the city skyline – it also attracts a lot of business travellers. “In the coming months there’s a lot of major events taking place,” he says.
It’s a view echoed by Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board. “The hotels in Nairobi are doing well and are busy – business travel has actually increased,” he says. Grieves-Cook is also managing director of Gamewatchers Safaris, a specialist tour operator that runs wildlife tours as well as catering to business travellers looking for city accommodation and daytime excursions. Here, too, the figures are looking good. “The recession has had less impact than we would have thought – as a safari and beach destination we offer value for money, and that’s what people are looking for,” he says.
The picture is even more remarkable given the political turmoil that occurred in Kenya at the turn of 2008, when about 1,500 people were killed and 300,000 displaced following the disputed elections. The events had a catastrophic effect on tourism, one of the country’s main industries, but the sector has since bounced back, if not to its previous levels.
Grieves-Cook reports that 2007 had been a record year, with US$1 billion taken in tourist receipts, but that in the first six months of last year bookings went down by half. This year, he expects the sector to recover to within
20 per cent of 2007 levels. (A possible “Obama effect” may have had a part to play here – Grieves-Cook notes that there hasn’t been as big a decline in US bookings, perhaps a result of the positive publicity garnered by the election of the Kenya-descended president.)
Grieves-Cook is keen to stress that the violence was localised and didn’t have an impact on visitors. “The unrest happened in the western corner [of the country] around Kisumu and the slum areas, and none of it was aimed at foreigners – we had 40,000 visitors in the country at the time and not a single one was harmed and no one wanted to cut short their trip,” he says. “There was no damage to infrastructure and things went back to normal quickly.”
Vickie Muyanga, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts’ director of wholesale sales for East Africa, also felt the effects of the political problems. The company’s Nairobi property, Fairmont the Norfolk, was already suffering a drop in occupancy thanks to the wholesale renovations taking place – as one of the city’s oldest hotels, its revamp was finally completed earlier this year (see review, above).
“Until May 2007, the Norfolk and the Serena [another high-end property in the city] were neck and neck occupancy-wise, then our renovations were delayed and we lost people,” she recalls. “Then the elections drove people away, so we received a serious beating twice. And just as we were recovering, the recession hit.” But she reports that business is again picking up, even given the economic climate.
Grieves-Cook cites a variety of reasons why many companies are choosing to do business in Nairobi. First is its air access – it serves as a hub for other African destinations and has good connections from the UK. And while it’s an eight-hour journey from London, the time difference is only two hours, so business travellers won’t suffer jet lag. The official language is English, so it’s easy to communicate, and the arrival of fibre-optic cable, which had come in the week I visited, should greatly improve internet access.
He also points out the calibre of the city’s luxury hotels, but as Ebo says, there’s only a limited amount of them, and not all of the major groups have set up here. “We don’t have enough international chains, which doesn’t help those who want to hold major conferences,” he says.
Ebo suggests they may have been put off by the political instability (this could also explain why you won’t see a McDonald’s, a KFC or a Pizza Hut), but he reports a couple of new properties that are set to open shortly. An 162-room Crowne Plaza is due to open at the end of this year, and the 230-room Westlands is expected to follow by the first quarter of next year. There has also been talk of building an airport hotel, although nothing has been confirmed yet (if Ebo had the money, he says he’d build one himself).
The city’s reputation for poor security is something you can’t get away from, and most business travellers will be told a few horror stories about “Nairobbery” before they visit. But according to Grieves-Cook, reports have been exaggerated. “The reputation is probably a bit overplayed,” he says. “As chairman of the tourist board I’m informed when anything happens to a visitor, and my phone doesn’t ring very often. I wouldn’t advise you to walk out of the hotel and wander around the city with your handbag, but it’s a question of common sense. There isn’t a crime wave that’s out of control.”
Ebo agrees. “I’m more nervous in London than I am here,” he says. “Mostly it’s petty crime and is more out of desperation than anything else [most Kenyans live below the poverty line of US$1 a day]. I’d view it as the same as any other city.”
Corruption is also something that’s hard to ignore, with taxi drivers keen to wax lyrical about the country’s woes, and signs outside institutions such as the University of Nairobi and the National Park proclaiming “corruption-free zones”. Grieves-Cook says: “It’s a major obstacle to Kenya’s economic growth and success, but we have a free press and an anti-corruption court. On the whole it shouldn’t affect business visitors – it’s more of a local thing that tends to affect Kenyans themselves.”
These issues may undoubtedly cause problems, but one area where the city towers above its rivals is in its natural wonders. Nairobi prides itself as being the only city in the world with a national park on its doorstep – within 6.5km of the metropolis, travellers can find themselves in the most sublime, peaceful setting, spotting mean-looking buffalo, cantankerous rhinos and, if you’re as lucky as I was, regal lions.
“It’s a great option for incentive groups, and people often build a couple of extra days into their trip [to see the sights],” Grieves-Cook says. And with fantastic attractions such as the Giraffe Centre – where you can go nose-to-nose with the bandy-legged herbivores – and the David Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary – a haven for baby nellies whose mothers have been poached – close by, there’s no shortage of chances to get back to nature.
If you’re a meat eater, there’s one other place that you really need to visit, and that’s the Carnivore, a legendary restaurant a few kilometres from the city centre. Staff will carve every kind of meat straight on to your plate until you lower the little white flag on your table to signify surrender. You’ll be treated to some traditional Kenyan hospitality, and if you go, as I did, en route to the airport, you’ll still be smiling through the lengthy immigration queue.
USEFUL CONTACTS
Kenya Tourist Board: tel +44 (0)20 7367 0900; magicalkenya.com
Gamewatchers Safaris: tel +254 207 123 129; porini.com
Intercontinental Nairobi: tel +254 203 200 000; ichotelsgroup.com
The Carnivore: tamarind.co.ke
GETTING THERE
Kenya Airways flies daily from London to Nairobi, with an extra flight on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic also operate daily on the route. Visit kenya-airways.com; ba.com; virgin-atlantic.com
