Tourism and hospitality revealed as the best performing sector
Tourism and hospitality was one of the best performing sectors of the economy, a new Economic Survey 2022 has shown.
Survey shows an impressive 1.5 million tourists visited the country in 2021 up from one million in 2020.
That growth represents a 50.3 per cent increase in the number of international visitor arrivals in 2021, most of whom visited the country’s national parks and game reserves.
Speaking during the launch of the report yesterday, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani attributed the growth to the government’s interventions to cushion the sector from the shocks of Covid-19 that severely affected the sector.
“One of the sectors that had suffered most because of restricted movements, and termination of international flights was tourism. I am glad that the government’s sustained intervention to jumpstart this sector while protecting its players from heavy financial losses has borne fruits,” he Yatani said.
Similarly, the value of bed occupancy, which is basically a measure of utilisation of the available bed capacity in hotel rooms, also grew to 5,517,000 last year from 3,803,000 in 2020.
Clear indication
The latest figures are a clear indication of a rebounding sector – which was one of the worst affected industries in the history of mankind when the pandemic visited the global economy.
According to the CS, government measures including provision of soft loans to hotels and related establishments through the Tourism Finance Corporation, reopening of source markets, relaxation of travel restrictions among other interventions were instrumental in supporting the sector during the bumpy Covid-19 period.
Tourism Research Institute registered a 53.29 per cent growth in the number of international visitor arrivals with 870,465 visitors, as compared to 567,848 in 2020.
