Hotel room crisis as Obama arrival nears

Dar es Salaam. An acute shortage of hotel rooms has hit Dar es Salaam ahead of next week’s visit by US President Barack Obama.

All major five and four-star hotels have been fully booked, some for over a week, with demand for accommodation said to be growing every day, industry sources confirmed.

A spot check by The Citizen at the weekend established that most of the hotels in the central business district and those along the Indian Ocean beach were booked in advance by different parties accompanying the US leader.

President Obama is scheduled to arrive next Monday and stay in Dar es Salaam for a night in the last leg of his eight-day tour of Africa. In tow will be 800 people, according to information deduced from his itinerary.

The party includes some 500 American businessmen, hundreds of secret service agents, some of whom are already in the country and representatives of scores of global media outlets.

President Obama, his wife Michelle, their two daughters and close aides will stay in one of the top hotels that will be completely secluded prior to his arrival.

Advance party

An advance itinerary dispatch by the White House indicated some 65 secret service personnel will be in Dar es Salaam to secure crucial facilities while laying the ground for the would be hectic tour. These will be later joined by 80 to 100 additional agents to work rotating shifts, with round-the-clock coverage, for Obama’s and his family’s security details, counterassault teams and logistics coordinators.

High-profile meetings

The VIP accommodation crisis has been exacerbated by the fact that Dar will play host to two other major conferences over the same period. About 15 heads of state and government and business executives from around the world will attend the Smart Partnership Dialogue meeting from June 28 to July 1.

Women business executives, former first ladies, Laura Bush and Cherie Blair will join about eight first ladies from across Africa in a two-day African Ladies’ summit scheduled for July 2-3 in the city. Both the presidents and first ladies would bring with them scores of aides and body guards.

The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Ms Justine Greening, is also in town already on her first visit to see the impact of the UK’s development efforts.

Her office said she is scheduled to visit Dar es Salaam’s Capital Markets and Securities Exchange and a large commercial rice plantation in Kilombero Valley to understand how her country can help Tanzanian businesses to grow and create more jobs.

A combined capacity of 1,300 rooms in fairly luxury hotels such as Serena, Hyatt Regency Kilimanjaro Hotel, Southern Sun, Double Tree, Holiday Inn and White Sand were all taken. “Our hotel is fully booked from June 27 to July 2. We are now referring guests to Bagamoyo,” a front desk attendant who wished not to be named in the media told The Citizen on Friday.

The Hilton Group’s Double Tree Hotel in Oyster Bay area with 140 rooms was reserved for members of the media traveling with President Obama.

An official at the World Bank offices in Dar es Salaam who handled some of the bookings confided to The Citizen that top government officials, NGO executives and CEOs of private organisations with local representation resorted to other means after missing out on the bookings.

“These are mostly those who made late decisions to be in Dar es Salaam and had either to be taken in by embassy establishments. Some absent expatriates also gave up their houses for a few days at a fee,” said the World Bank official who requested for anonymity due to security and privacy concerns.

DITF also taking place

The Obama visit and the high profile meetings will coincide with the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) that brings scores of business executives, large entrepreneurs and representatives of trade fairs from various countries in the world. The trade fair will take place from June 28 up to July 8 at the Mwl J.K Nyerere trade fair grounds in the city.

Officials of TanTrade, the host of the fair have already expressed concerns over lack of executive accommodation for their guests because of the Obama visit and the other meetings.

The Tanzania Trade Development Authority (TanTrade) acting Director General Ms Jacqueline Maleko told The Citizen at the weekend that the authority was struggling to find accommodation to exhibitors.

Contrary to last year’s DITF, in which only exhibitors from 11 countries took part, this time around exhibitors from more than 30 countries with over 300 foreign firms have confirmed participation.

Three-star hotels fully booked

A further survey by The Citizen indicated that the three-star hotels at the city centre have also been fully booked. Hotel managers in the Kisutu and Kipunguni areas in the city centre told The Citizen that they had to turn away bookings because they have no space left.

Hotel managers in the hotels told The Citizen that tourists have suffered the most from the shortage of accommodation.

‘‘This is high tourist season. And they usually like these kinds of hotels because they are cheap but unfortunately we are fully booked,” said a receptionist at Hotel Sapphire at Kisutu area.

Electricity supply a challenge

But the main challenge is power blackouts that necessitate the use of generators, most managers said.

“We are supposed to cash in from the unprecedented influx of guests, but unfortunately we will have to run generators 24 hours. This means extra costs,” a hotel manager who requested for anonymity told The Citizen.

Kariakoo hotels vacant

A spot-check conducted in Kariakoo, however, found that most hotels are still vacant. The area, preferred by middle-level businessmen and traders from upcountry and neighbouring countries because of its proximity to the city centre and the Dar port, house many three-star hotels. Managers in the hotels surveyed said according to their projections they expect to receive bookings towards the end of the week as tourists and exhibitors in the DITF try to find space.

“We still have space in our hotels that means we can accommodate guests at our inns, and in fact we expect increased activity from the middle of this week to next week due to a high number of events in the city,” said an official of the Sleep In Hotels, a chain of low-cost accommodation facilities in the city.

At Royal Mirage Hotel, the receptionist noted that there is space in both the hotels.

“We still have empty rooms. We hope we might be fully booked by the end of this week, but that depends on whether other high class hotels will be fully booked or not,” hinted a receptionist at Royal Mirage Hotel.

Reported by Tom Mosoba, Abela Msikula, Alex Bitekeye, Henry Mwangonde and Anuciatha Lucas