Sitting on 30 acres of land and overlooking the Indian Ocean, Swahili Beach Resort has turned Diani, its laid-back location, to a sought-after destination for visitors in East Africa.
In this interview, Joab Andayi, general manager of the resort, speaks to Obinna Emelike on the reasons the resort is a must-visit all year long and other related issues.
Excerpt:
For many would-be guests, what is unique about Swahili Beach Resort?
We have a significant name ‘Swahili’, which has enabled us to position ourselves as the foremost beach resort in the Kwale County of Kenya.
Swahili Beach Resort is sitting on 30 acres of land. We have 140 rooms, across four categories of; standard, superior, executive suites and the penthouse.
The resort has 10 swimming pools cascading from the entry of the reception to the beach. This gives the guests enough areas to enjoy themselves without squeezing themselves. We also have a gym and spa.
At the gym and spa, we have a beach club with a private swimming pool. The package allows you to spend the whole day having snacks, massages, specialty treats, body enhancements and enjoying yourself. It is good for groups and couples.
We have four gourmet restaurants; the main restaurant where we serve breakfast and dinner; an Indian specialty restaurant; a seafood restaurant that specializes in live food cooking a kind of ‘teppanyaki’ cuisine. We also have a beach restaurant, which is mainly a beach cafe.
The rooms are uniquely designed; the architecture is a combination of Arabian and Zanzibar styles. This gives a unique Swahili design that does not have a prototype here in Diani.
The room offerings are exciting. We have four categories of room offerings; standard, superior, executive suites and penthouse.
The superior room offering comes with two extra balconies, which guests can use a day bed or extra bed for the kids. The extra option boosts our status as a family-friendly resort.
The executive suites have more space in the living area and more comfortable rooms, while the penthouse is much more spacious, with larger balconies and a bigger living area.
The resort is a family owned business. It was built 10 years ago, and since then we have been in operation.
How accessible is the resort to global tourists?
Swahili Beach Resort is located along Diana Beach, which is known for beautiful beach banks rated number 1 in Africa.
We are located about 10 minutes away from the Ukunda Airstrip. So, accessibility is easy.
If you are arriving from Nairobi, it takes roughly 10 minutes to be at the beach.
How did you sustain your business during the pandemic?
Certainly, the pandemic was a big problem for the tourism industry at large and Swahili Beach Resort was not an exemption.
Then, borders were closed, no flights were coming in and the country was locked down with no tourists coming. This was a big problem and the hotel had to close because there was no business happening and as a labour-intensive industry, we employ so many people, about 300 staff members , and without any revenue coming in, it was tough to sustain their salaries.
But it never took so long to open as the lock down eased. But things were not the same as there were before the Covid-19 pandemic, because the markets were still closed, especially the international markets.
This was the point where Kenya explored, to a large extent, domestic tourism. Most of our supplies will come from Kenya mainland and Nairobi in particular. We had lots of clients that came from Nairobi. Being a big town, Nairobi hosts a mixed category of domestic tourism. They would not be essentially native Kenyans, they could be from the international community living in Nairobi. So, the whole of this mix became a very good market for us here to sustain the operations of the resort.
The domestic markets have significantly picked up and this has enabled us to keep going post-pandemic.
What are you doing to sustain the domestic market since discovering its potential during the pandemic?
We are positioning ourselves to crater for the domestic market. We have enlarged our reach, not only in Kenya but around East Africa. We have been doing campaigns in Uganda and Rwanda and we have a good market in Uganda, especially as the country is landlocked.
The mix of our markets is from leisure, to cooperate and to international and they have shaped up significantly post Covid. Now, we can see a trend where the niche market is not sustainable. Both markets; domestic and international are important, but domestic gives a sense of sustenance because traditionally, the international market varies depending on summer or winter, but domestic market does not depend on seasons.
Again, we have positioned ourselves with stakeholders in the tourism industry. For instance, we work with Magical Kenya to boost domestic tourism and to make sure that the target market is reached. We also work with domestic tour operators, depending on how our relationship is in terms of their productivity and we work out good rates for them, so that they can reach out to the population they are targeting.
What is the value of the domestic market to your business and tourism in general in Diana as a destination?
Domestic market sums up to 40 percent of our business today. It is followed by the international market, which accounts for around 25 percent of our business. The 40 percent I am talking about is leisure travel. The leisure travelers include direct bookers and domestic tour operators.
The other percentage of business that is rising up significantly in the resort is conferences and events. Meanwhile, we are seeing a trend in our conference bookings. While the conference is under our corporate package, it is not corporate as such because people are trying to choose a beach destination to hold their conferences. They are looking for a mix; to have the conference in the morning hours and leisure in the evening.
They can swim, walk on the beach, go to a spa, enjoy the place and this is a market that is rising up and we are keen to position ourselves to be able to take advantage of it.
One of the things we have done is to upgrade our conference facilities so that we can provide what the corporate clients want.
How helpful has the Kenya Tourism Ministry been to the hospitality sector and your resort in particular?
Our relationship with the Kenyan Tourism Ministry has been incredible. When the pandemic broke the tourism ministry under the Tourism Finance Corporation was able to give out loans to the stakeholders within the tourism industry and Swahili Beach Resort benefited. That was a major boost for all the players within the tourism industry.
In line with government support, Magical Kenya has been doing a lot of campaigns, especially to promote domestic tourism and we at Swahili Beach have positioned ourselves to be able to specialize in this market. We brought a lot of visibility, we partnered with other stakeholders in Magical Kenya including airlines such as Jambo Jets, Safari Links as well as domestic tour operators. With all these promotions, our visibility has significantly increased to the domestic travelers. We have poisoned ourselves to capture the travelers we want to come to our resort.
We also had a team at Magical Kenya 2022, which was held at The Bomas of Kenya.
Do you have incentives to attract guests?
We have different packages that attract different clients. For example, we have packages for the ladies called ‘Girls Getaway Package’ and our number clients for this package are ladies from Uganda. This essentially brings friends and the girls together. We also have a special discount for direct bookers from Uganda.
Beyond the gym and spa what other activities can guests enjoy during their stay?
We have a lot of activities for guests to enjoy while here on break. They vary from full day to a half day trip, or simply activities you can enjoy within the resort.
A full day trip will include a snorkeling trip to Wasini Island, about 45 minutes drive and you will spend the whole day in the Marine Conservation Area where coral reef are very rich, you will see fishes with different colors, and most likely going to see dolphins, and the humpback whales, especially in November.
The snorkeling activities on short duration during the day, include a trip to Robison Island; a huge sandbank. You can do snorkeling there on a flat bottom boat to see the colored fishes, enjoy the marine nature and come back to the resort refreshed.
As well, in the resort we offer millions of activities to the guests. You can engage your hands with animation as the animation team advertise activities on the board every day so that guests can participate in anyone that interests them. You can go swimming across the 10 swimming pools, walk on the beach, listen to wild birds, or just watch and listen to the echoes from the Indian Ocean wave.
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Who are your target markets?
All our clients are the same. We love to have a mix of all open cultures because tourism gives us a platform to be able to share the cultures. Our staff members are happy to mingle with people from different cultures and they always engage in short conversations and exchange their experiences and cultures. So, with open arms we welcome different people to come and share their experiences with us.
How big is Diani as a beach destination in Kenya?
Though Mombasa is an old town, with a well- known name among many people because of the history behind it, Diani has been in existence for many years as well.
It is not as populated as Mombasa, administratively, Mombasa is a county, Diani falls under the Kwale County, which is significant in terms of tourism. Tourism is the main drive for Kwale County and the feat is largely contributed by the existence of Diani beach. So, Diani is a big destination and we work together with other stakeholders within the destination to market the destination.
There will soon be more accessibility to the Mombasa Airport once the highway is finished. Guests complain of time wasting in the past because of the repairs on the highway but the government has been working on the project to ensure that there is a bridge and this will increase Diani accessibility to the international world.
