The disruption of social and economic activities by the novel coronavirus has no bounds as it continues its boomerang effect on every sector. Even with a fraction of the world’s cases recorded in Africa, the continent is reeling from the ”invincible enemy” as described by many. As of May 18, the number of cases in Ethiopia had reached 335.
The Government has implemented measures to slow the spread of the virus and promote safety including a five-month state of emergency to fight the spread of the virus on April 11. The latest Association in Africa to share data to illustrate the stress test its members are going through is the Addis Ababa Hotel Association.
The Report titled: ”The impact of covid-19 on the Addis Ababa market” indicates that 88 percent of hotels are fully and partially closed in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa. The Association cites the announcement of Ethiopian Airlines cancellation of over 80 destinations to buttress the magnitude of the effects of the pandemic.
”It is safe to assume that Ethiopia’s tourist arrivals for year 2019/2020 will be severely impacted, with figures potentially falling lower than the 849,000 reported in 2018/2019 to less than 600,000. This sentient is evident with Ethiopian Airlines’ suspension and call elation of flights to over 80 destinations. Along with limited carriers flying to Addis Ababa, the situation is expected to further hit hotel performance,” the report cites.
With over 15000 workforces being furloughed and expected revenue loss per month of 35,000,000 USD the worse is yet to come as the virus rages on. AHA found that 88 percent of its member hotels in Addis Ababa have decided to partially or fully close the hotels due to low occupancy rates. Accordingly, the city owns 56 and 32 percent of fully and partially closed hotels while 12 percent hotels served as quarantine facility.
The Hotel Association is collaborating with the Government of Ethiopia to help institute some reliefs and stimulus packages for members of the association. It has however not seen concrete commitments from the financial institutions to arrange new payment terms and moratorium on loan payments among other reliefs.
On the other hand, the hotels are facing severe time for declining number of customers due to the pandemic. Some hotels reported that they lost about 70 percent of their customers due to coronavirus while some expressed total absence of the users. Recently the President of Ethiopian Hotel Professionals Association Lulesseged Messele disclosed that the impact of the virus has put hotels out of business. He expressed that the operation of the sector is already at a standstill.
Travel restrictions, flight suspension, rules related to social distancing and lockdown directives and the recently imposed nationwide state of emergency are having a major impact on the sector. After heeding the government’s advice, he said the majority of hotels are keeping their staff on payroll.
Both hotels and tour operators’ associations have now appealed to the Prime minster Abiy’s Administration to ease financial burden through debt relief and delaying the payment of installments on loans, Lulesseged vows to hear a positive response from the government shortly.
“We are okay to play the social responsibility role that is expected from us and share the burden,” he said. The government should also take some of the risks the hospitality sector face in this challenging time. Lulesseged further said the country needs to prepare a recovery plan for the industry once this pandemic is over. The sector may need a-year-long support from the government.
There are more than 400 star-rated hotels in Ethiopia. Officials admitted the coronavirus has affected the service sector dearly. Recently, Ethiopia’s Job Creation Commission projected over two million Ethiopians could lose their job within three months due to the impact of coronavirus. Of the 2 million jobs, over 300,000 could be from the service sector.
On March 21, 2020, the CIVID 19 National Ministerial Committee heralded resolution of measures including the closure of night clubs and bars and social distancing to be taken to strengthen the fight against corona virus.
Following this, Ministry of Culture Tourism and Sport and Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association have made an observation to evaluate whether the hotel industry is applying social distancing and avoidance of overcrowding to prevent corona virus.
On the occasion Minister Dr. Hirut Kassaw witnessed that the hotels are applying the legal prohibition by the government as most the hotels are closed their bars based on the order of the government. The mister also lauded the hotels’ commitment in providing sanitizers and other services in a way that can avert contagion among customers.
As to her, the hotels have equipped themselves with the needed sanitizer to prevent the virus and some of them are also partially release their workers to stay home and keep themselves safe from the disease. According to the minister, the overall commitment of the hotels observed by the day is appreciable and the caution must be applied in all hotels including those that are not visited by the ministry.
However, few hotels yet not closed their bars and are negligent in terms of seating arrangement and reducing number of guests in order to ensure social distancing in hotels, it was learnt. The minister called on the hotels to ensure social distancing and most importantly to close their bars temporarily as per the decision of the ministerial committee. The hotels also accepted the recommendation from the ministry.
The ministry will conduct continual follow up around hotels and bar and restaurants for the implementation of bars closure and social distancing in the service industry, according to Dr. Hirut. The hotels should arrange their seats taking in mind that social distancing is among the major prevention schemes of the pandemic that cause a devastative social, economic impact across the world, the minister underlined.
The country is also working to recover the economy especially the tourism industry by promoting destinations and advancing the production of tourist products. Tourism Ethiopia is developing videos that attract tourists. Therefore the nation is working to actively engage in tourism promotion side by side to the COVID 19 prevention mechanisms aimed at increasing tourist flow aftermath of the pandemic. On the other hand maintaining and developing tourism destinations are also other activities framed by the Ethiopian Tourism organization as part of the recovery plan. These activities should be extended to revive the sector and hotels also need to improve their service to get better income when things back to normal.
The Ethiopian Herald May 19/2020
COMPILED BY YOHANES JEMANEH
