A look at how virus has affected Kenya tourism

It's been listed on travel bucket lists by newspapers and magazines all over the world, visited by celebrities, and featured in TV programmes: Giraffe Manor is arguably one of Kenya's most famous and the world's most photographed hotels.

But for the past two months, only the endangered Rothschild's giraffe that gives the manor its name have lived here, along with a reduced staff that have looked after the hotel while there were no guests to attend to.

The Coronavirus pandemic has threatened the survival of businesses in the travel industry all over the world, both big and small.

This week another iconic hotel - Kenya's oldest, The Norfolk - closed indefinitely. In its 115-year history, the hotel hosted an abundance of famous travellers from across the world, including Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill and Robert Redford. It was bombed in 1980 and rebuilt - but it couldn't survive this.

But the Giraffe Manor is making plans to survive the crisis.

Mary Lever-Morrison is the General Manager here, together with her husband, Bart. Usually, they would have closed in late April to renovate the rooms ahead of the peak season starting in June, but the global Coronavirus outbreak this year means everything is different.

Some of the rooms here are normally booked up years in advance. But with Kenya's borders closed as of late March, the guests who have booked those rooms have had no choice but to stay away.

Lever-Morrison says that they have seen 88% of their guests postpone their trips - only 12% have cancelled altogether.

While they wait for Kenya to reopen its borders and their international guests to come back, Giraffe Manor is reopening its doors to guests from within the Nairobi metropolitan area.

Duty Manager Linet Okemo-Muhungi is back at work after two months away to make sure that everything is ready when the hotel reopens. She'd been at home with her family since the hotel closed in March.

Although Giraffe Manor is reopening, Kenya's COVID-related travel restrictions mean that for now, only people who live within the Nairobi Metropolitan Area – which is where Giraffe Manor is also located can come and visit.

But the hotel's management is hopeful that enough people in Nairobi's busy and bustling city will be drawn to the expansive and quiet wilderness surrounding Giraffe Manor - and of course its endangered inhabitants to make it worthwhile.

As well as opening Giraffe Manor to local visitors, the hotel's parent company - the Safari Collection - are raising funds through their charitable foundation to keep their conservation and community projects going as much as possible. They've also set up an online shop so that people dreaming of visiting the giraffes can buy a souvenir from Giraffe Manor without leaving home.

Earlier this May, Conde Nast traveller included Giraffe Manor as a destination to book now for next year. With travel industry insiders predicting a move towards more sustainable travel to more secluded areas, Giraffe Manor and the Safari Collection seem better placed to try and face what may be an economic recession in the travel industry.

But the travel industry has changed, some would say irrevocably – so even for a hotel with as much to offer like this one, business, as usual, may be a thing of the past. For now, they can only hope that enough local travellers will come and spend a day or two among the endangered giraffes that dwell in their midst to keep the manor open.