65-Year-Old Hotel Rebrands to Hemingways

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Express Travel Group (ETG) Travel Management Company, has rebranded to Hemingways Travel.

The rebrand of the 65-year-old hotel is in response to emerging opportunities for growth and the need to enhance the travelers experience at a time when travel is experiencing unprecedented disruption and changes in needs.

The rebranding has also seen the hotel appoint the former Hemingways Group Finance Director, Dr. Joseph Kithitu, as the new Managing Director of Hemingways Travel.

Speaking at the rebrand launch ceremony, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala, lauded the move, noting that technology innovation and collaboration has enabled the tourism sector to ride the difficult Covid-19 period.

“Innovation, digitization and expansion to leisure travel is a sure win for Hemingways Travel and any other sector players looking to thrive in the tourism and travel sector as the industry continues to recover from the pandemic,” said CS Balala.

The Hemingways Group Chief Executive Officer, Ross Evans said Hemingways plans to expand its offering to the leisure market to the level it has become renowned for in the corporate travel market.

He said the Company whose rebrand and related investment is expected to drive the new strategy, will also leverage its operations as a premium inbound destination management company.

“We remain very focused on delivering for our corporate travel clients and are now expanding our proposition to leisure travelers by offering a full suite of premium travel services and the valuable benefits of using an experienced travel agent,” stated Evans.

The CEO noted that with the new strategy Hemingways clients can now adapt to the changing demands of travel by taking advantage of new technologies that will enhance the traveler experience and offer complete peace of mind.

Latest statistics from the Ministry of Tourism indicate that the tourism industry has registered growth and contributed to a Gross Domestic Product of 10.4 percent and employed 990,000 people.

Despite being one of the hardest-hit industries in the wake of Covid-19, Kenya’s tourism earnings grew by 65.4 percent to Sh. 146.51 billion in 2021 compared to Sh. 88.56 billion in 2020.

The growth has been credited to the implementation of various interventions by the government to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the sector, including a focus on domestic tourism.

This reflects the increasing prevalence and investment in domestic tourism in Kenya. According to Statistics, the travel and tourism market is forecast to grow at an annual growth rate of 10.47 percent up to 2026.

According to the Annual Tourism Sector Performance Report 2021, new vision strategies such as digitization have supported sector recovery.

Dr. Kithitu in his speech noted that Hemingways Travel will continue using technology to drive its new strategy and the new online booking tool platform to bring unrivalled flight and hotel content to customers.

“Hemingways Travel has made significant enhancements to its platform to meet changing industry need,” he added.