New dawn beckons for Sunset Hotel in Kisumu

Tourism Finance Corporation (TFC) plans to re-brand the 40-year-old Sunset Hotel into a luxurious 100-roomed lakefront hotel with a 5,000 capacity convention centre.

The facelift will also see a patch of bush separating the hotel from Lake Victoria’s shoreline cleared, opening the facility to water activities including sport fishing, luxury boat cruises, kayaking and wake-boarding in efforts to tip tourism numbers.

Jonah Orumoi, the TFC chief executive officer, said the plan was informed by the need to have the Ministry of Tourism spearhead the revolution of Western region as a potential tourism destination.

“As it is now, Sunset cannot compete against new entrants in the town like the Acacia Premier. And we have been making plans to have it remodelled as a benchmark facility that can in turn attract other tourism investments into the region,” he said.

FIVE-STAR HOTEL

Mr Orumoi said the redevelopment was in line with plans to overhaul TFC-backed properties in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. The new model will allow expansion of the facility to a five-star hotel.

“We are on the final touches and once we agree with the county government on the way forward, we will put out an advertisement calling on interested investors to take over the running of Sunset Hotel, revitilise it and build a conference facility on the hotel’s idle land,” he said.

The investment, he said, was likely to attract bigger regional meetings to Kisumu, boost the under-performing Kisumu International Airport and help map out Lake Victoria’s tourism gems.

County Tourism, Sports and Culture Executive Achie Alai said the county government, which owned the land on which Sunset stands as well as a five per cent stake in the facility, had not agreed with TFC on the way forward.