Hoteliers call for curfew hours review as recovery stalls
TOURISM: Players in the hospitality industry have called on the government to review curfew hours to allow for longer business hours.
Kenya Coast Tourism Association Chairman Vitor Shitakha said the curfew has remained a setback in the efforts to achieve full recovery in the tourism sector post Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.
“Merry makers feel the time to have dinner is too limited because of the curfew therefore they get discouraged.
We are facing an uphill task in bringing hospitality business to where it used to be before the pandemic,” he added.
The players are, however, optimistic that amid global travel restrictions, social-distancing protocols and prohibitions on mass gatherings, Kenya’s meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) segment is finally “looking up.”
Sharp decline
The hoteliers are hopeful that the MICE segment will recover after a sharp decline in 2020 and first two weeks of 2021.
“We are very optimistic about the year 2021. We have started receiving a number of conference enquiries across our eight hotels in Kenya.
People have realised that business has to go on despite the challenges we are facing,” said Hasnain, Managing Director of PrideInn Group.
Christmas and New Year holidays gave tourism sector a sigh of relief after a long dry spell.
The sector has, however, seen a decline in business in the first two weeks of 2021 due to scarcity of foreign arrivals owing to prolonged restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic and other competing priorities locally.
