By Edna Mwende
The Diani Reef Beach Resort and Spa is in the process of expanding the property with an additional 114 new rooms which will be contained in a new wing, and which will be unveiled just in time for the Christmas festivities.
According to a news report by the Business Daily, this will bring the total room count of Diani Reef to an impressive 257 rooms, making it the single largest five-star hotel by room inventory in the South Coast.
The addition of the 114 rooms is geared towards ensuring the resort can accommodate the rising numbers of tourists to the coast and further endorses Diani Reef’s confidence in Diani as a destination, with its beaches being named one of the best in the world and Africa’s leading beach destination.
“We are very excited as this expansion plan goes a long way in ensuring that we are able to accommodate the high-numbers of tourists expected during this festive season,” Bobby Kimani, the managing director at Diani Reef Beach Resort said as quoted by the Business Daily.
Mr. Kimani added that this investment comes at a time when business is low in order to pave way for high season that starts in December. The government is hoping the start of direct flights between Nairobi and New York will help to boost tourism in the country.
Diani Reef which received a five-star ranking in April this year from the Kenya Tourism Regulatory Authority also has partnerships with airlines and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to provide affordable holiday packages to the domestic tourists. In July, the hotel partnered with Silverstone Air to allow the domestic traveler to save up to 30 percent on the normal flight fare and accommodation rate.
This comes at a time when the coastal region is experiencing an increase in the number of tourist arrivals with reports indicating that the numbers rose by 14 percent between 2017 and 2018 from 1.77 million to 2.03 million.
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