Author: Brian Adero
Date: January 2, 2007
Type of article: Business News
Source: The East African Standard - not available online

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This month could see Nairobi overrun by thousands more foreign visitors than it can house or move about comfortably, industry sources say.

Hotel managers who struggled with about 6,000 delegates at last year’s climate change conference predict tough times if a planned international meeting attracts even half the number of international guests organisers expect.

Mr Bernard Itebeta, a Hilton Hotel manager, predicts logistics will be a problem.

"Our main worry is how the movement of the guests will be (managed)," he says.

"We know how our transport system is, the traffic jam in the city. It will be the biggest challenge we are expecting in the hotel industry."

Over 150,000 delegates expected

World Social Forum organisers say they will host over 150,000 delegates in less than three weeks from Tuesday.

Most will be local youth but tens of thousands, they say, will be foreign delegates. On Sunday, Ms Vita Randazo, part of the team handling logistics, said organisers estimated there would be 20,000 foreign visitors.
Over 50,000 people have already confirmed attendance, Mr Oduor Ong’wen, another member of the organising committee, said in an interview late last year.

More, he added, were still booking online for the "five days of cultural resistance and celebration". The plans made for accommodation take care of just a fraction of the numbers they have been putting out.

"We have information regarding accommodation arrangements on our website," Ongwen said.

"What we are doing is only to facilitate then individual participants will choose where to stay."

Tents to be set up at campsites

Organisers plan to set up tents at campsites in Machakos, Kasarani and on Ngong’ Road to house some 3,000 people.

More will be housed in various homes by 11,500 volunteers. The Young Men’s Christian Association, Young Women’s Christian Association, Kenya Polytechnic, Salvation Army Hostels, Kenya College of Communication Technology and various churches will also provide accommodation.

Otherwise, delegates will be left to make their own arrangements. Given existing hotel capacity, some strain is expected in the industry.

Mr Mike Mutia, Grand Regency Hotel sales and marketing manager, says hotel managers will meet this month to assess the situation.

"Four and five-star hotels in Nairobi have a capacity of 2,000 (some of which is always booked)," he says. "It’s going to be chaos. We can’t handle more than 2,000 VIP guests considering the bed capacity."

Three and two-star hotels in the city can provide another 1,000 beds or so.

Groups opposed to capitalism and globalisation

The World Social Forum (WSF) is a yearly meeting of groups opposed to capitalism and globalisation. Rallying around the clarion call of Another World Is Possible, WSF has placed social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the environment on the agenda of the world’s peoples.

It is held to rival the World Economic Forum, a January meeting of business and political leaders. The economic forum is held in Davos, Switzerland, a resort town where mass protests are all but impossible.

The anti-globalisation movement, therefore, tries to overshadow media coverage of the Davos talks with the social forum.

"Social movements and other civil society organisations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism (will) come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposal’s," organisers said in their first press release.

Drumming up support of various youth groups

WSF events will be held at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park and the Moi International Sports Centre in Kasarani from January 20 to 25.

The first two WSF meetings drew 12,000 official delegates each but numbers have been growing dramatically each year.

The last to be held in one city, 2005’s forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, had 155,000 registered participants. Last year, three cities shared the event.

Currently, there is a ‘build-up group’ of over 300 going round Nairobi’s slum areas to drum up the support of various youth groups.

Both Protestant and Catholic church leaders have previously pledged to mobilise their followers locally for the event.

African churches will participate through a platform of the Roman Catholic organisation Caritas and the All Africa Conference of Churches.

Significant amount of conference tourism

Various Government departments — Immigration, Kenya Police, Kenya Airports Authority, Provincial Administration, the Foreign Affairs, Youth and Planning ministries among others — are also "fully involved".
Kenya has been experiencing a significant amount of "conference tourism" — visits by tourists attending international meetings.

National carrier Kenya Airways recently signed a memorandum of understanding with WSF organisers to offer foreign delegates preferential rates.

"We have already started seeing bookings from a number of delegates especially from West Africa and Southern Africa," said Mr Petterson Siema, the airline’s communications manager.

Head of Marketing, Mr Michael Okwiri said: "The success of this initiative will have a lasting impact on the country’s economy, especially in the tourism sector."