Business good for hotels in Mara reserve

Hotels in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve are enjoying booming business as tourists flock in to witness the wildebeest migration.

According to a market share report, top lodges are fully booked for the season as visitors from all around the world continue to stream in to experience the spectacle.

Serena Mara is leading with bed occupancy at 100 per cent, followed by Sarova Mara with 95 per cent, Ashnil Mara camp 80, Keekorok lodge 98, Mara Supa 30 and Mara Simba lodge at 15 per cent.

Other hotels that are reaping from the upsurge of visitors are Mara Intrepid, Kichwa Tembo, Angama, and Governor’s camp.

Most of the lodges and tented camps in the Mara have been fully booked since last month with some of the wildlife loving tourists being forced to look for accommodation in hotels and camps around the game reserve.

According to Maasai Mara senior warden Moses Kuyoni, they are handling between 200-300 vehicles a day at the five Maasai Mara entrances of Oloololo, Musiara, Talek, Sikinani and Oloolaimutia, translating into hundreds of visitors into the reserve.

More visitors are opting for the tented camps in the 16 conservancies outside the county government’s protected area of the Mara reserve.

The migration began towards the end of June with huge numbers of the herbivores from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania crossing the Mara River into the Maasai Mara in Kenya.

The migration is an annual journey by the animals, described as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Mara Conservancy’s CEO Brian Heath told journalists that the Mara triangle lodges alone had achieved full bookings of 4,000 guests daily.

According to Keekorok Lodge manager John Kiruthi, the lodge is 100 per cent booked up to September.

Most of the visitors are from countries not traditionally known to tour Kenya like China, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan.