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Dark Day For Hospitality Industry As Fairmont Norfolk Hotel Shuts Down

BY Soko Directory Team · May 28, 2020 12:05 pm

It has been a bright, lively and profitable 116 years but ‘natural calamities’ have led the Fairmont Norfolk Hotel to bow to pressure and call it a day.

Fairmont Norfolk Hotel has announced that it has decided to shut two of it’s major affiliate hotels, a decision that the management blames on the COVID-19 outbreak that has been spiraled by the flooding situation in the country.

The two Fairmont Norfolk Hotel’s that have been declared shut are the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi and the luxurious Mara Safari Club and as a consequence, losses of jobs to hundreds of Kenyans.

The Fairmont Norfolk Hotel management has sent out a notice by the Country General Manager, Mehdi Morad  who has largely blamed the flooding of the Mara Safari Club as a cause for closure.

“We are compelled to close down the properties and halt all operations as per the directive given by the Ministry of Health and the Government of Kenya, the notice by Morad reads citing the closure of the two Fairmont Norfolk Hotels.

“Due to uncertainty of when and how the impact of the global pandemic will result in the business picking up in the near future, we are left with no option but to close down indefinitely,” the sad notice by Fairmont Norfolk Hotel country manager Morad read.

Morad continues to express the decision was regrettable but all factors considered, there were no other options.

“It is regrettable that our Hotels, Fairmont The Norfolk and Fairmont Safari Club have since ceased their operations as a spiral effect o the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent flooding of the Fairmont Mara Safari Club,” the notice by Fairmont Norfolk Hotel reads.

“These unprecedented natural causes have resulted in the disruption of business now and in the foreseeable future,” Fairmont Norfolk Hotel says noting that the future was too uncertain to decide whether they would reopen in near future.

The closure of the two Fairmont Norfolk Hotel’s is a hit to the hospitality industry with the people that once worked in the hotels being rendered jobless and adding to an already bloated population of unemployment.

The shutdown by Fairmont Norfolk Hotel follows the closure of Serena Hotels which shut down ten of their lodges following failure to foot operation costs as COVID-19 continues to adversely affect the economy.

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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