This afternoon, a day before the Dusit D2 officially reopens its doors tomorrow morning after 196 days of reconstruction, was an hour long ceremony conducted at the hotel, which included raising the hotel group’s flag once again next to the Kenyan flag.
The hotel’s flag had only arrived earlier in the day on a Kenya Airways flight, after flying at 6 other Dusit hotels in Asia, six being the number of employees who had lost their lives in the terrorist attack on 15th of January this year. This was one of the ways the hotel group honoured their fallen colleagues and keep their memory alive.
When the flags arrived at the hotels front entrance, accompanied by a group of marchers to the sounds of a bagpipe, was the ‘Last Post‘ performed by a bugle player as the assembled crowd fell silent.
Once the flags were raised to the sounds of the Kenyan national anthem did the guests move into the conference room where General Manager Mike Metaxas gave a brief overview of the events in January and the work carried out since then before calling upon the Chief Guest, Kenya’s Tourism Cabinet Secretary Hon. Najib Balala to give his message on behalf of the Kenyan government.
Hon. Balala revealed that the reopening of the hotel had been raised earlier in the day in a cabinet meeting and that President Kenyatta had conveyed his best wishes on the occasion of the hotel resuming operations to the owners, management and staff.
The Cabinet Secretary also mentioned that for the year 2019 a rise in arrival numbers of about 10 percent was expected, after the massive boost in 2018 of over 30 percent.
He further assured visitors to Kenya that the government had taken additional measures to ensure their safety and security and that no act of terrorism would ever extinguish the spirit of the Kenyan people.
CS Balala was accompanied by three more cabinet colleagues and former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet.
The function was attended by a number of representatives from other hotels in the city of Nairobi, members of the tourism fraternity, other business representatives and a cross section of diplomats.
Source:Prof Wolfgang Thome- ATC News
