By Lee Kinyanjui
As Nakuru residents, we are excited that our town has been elevated to a city.
The opportunities that come with Nakuru becoming a city are unlimited and need to be tapped into.
We need to align businesses especially in the hospitality industry with available opportunities.
This will give visitors unforgettable #DestinationNakuru experience.
On Monday 22nd, we held a consultative forum with stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry on how we can work together to seize opportunities that come with city status.
As Nakuru becomes a city, players in the hospitality industry can tap into opportunities including:
Increasing bed capacity to match increase in local and international visitors: Ease of transport to Nakuru by air, rail and by road will increase the number of visitors.
We expect the first plane to land at Lanet Airport in August 2022 hence the need for more hotels to accommodate the expected influx of people.
Conferencing: Government business is big in the hospitality sector. When Nakuru becomes a city, civil servants per diem will be at par with Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
This means more meetings will be held in Nakuru and we must ensure we have capacity to accommodate these meetings.
Entice tourists to stay longer: Hotels in Nakuru need to offer packages that make tourists stay in Nakuru for more than a day or two.
This can be done by marketing and enhancing tourists experience in sites such as Menengai Crater, Hyrax hill and Lord Egerton Castle.
We can have hotels on these sites. Also, plays and movie theaters can contribute to longer stay.
Business next to water bodies are now big business in big cities abroad and we need to do this in Nakuru since we are a city with a park and lake.
To help put these initiatives to action, we will soon appoint members to the Nakuru Tourism Board to market Nakuru locally and internationally.
All these opportunities will grow our economy and create jobs.
Nakuru will no longer be a sleeping giant.
The writer (pictured above) is the Governor, Nakuru County.
