Pain continues to reign in the hotel industry across the country, as close to 90 per cent of the businesses express pessimism that they will return to normal business this year.
The sector blames reduced operating hours and imposition of the night curfew as the main hindrance to their recovery, as only 13 percent of the sector hopes to resume normal levels of operations by end of 2021.
According to the latest Hotels Survey by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), 42 percent of hotels interviewed last month said their businesses would only get back to normal when they are allowed to operate 24 hours.
Interestingly, few hotels (9.1 percent) think rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine is what will make them return to business, as many hold on the belief that relaxation of curfew and other restrictions is what will bring back business.
Lockdowns
“On average, 13 percent of hotels expected to resume normal levels of operations by end of 2021. This is a decline from the 18 per cent recorded in the May survey, with respondents attributing the decline to persistence of the pandemic,” the CBK report which released on Tuesday last week noted.
The survey notes that levels of uncertainty in the sector have risen due to discovery and spread of new Covid-19 strains, rising cases of infections, effects of recent lockdowns and slow rollout of the vaccines. 44.4 percent of hotels in Nairobi remain uncertain of when they will get back to normal business, as 42.9 percent from other parts of the country also stay confused.
In terms of employment, many hotels are still operating below capacity, while many- particularly hotels in Mombasa- have been forced to hire workers on temporary bases when they have good business.
“The survey findings show that the overall employment levels improved to 62 percent of the pre-Covid-19 levels (February 2020) in July, from 57 percent in May and 49 percent in April. Hotels recalled or employed new workers after the scale down in April 2021 occasioned by the enhanced Covid-19 restrictions.
“While the level of employment in Nairobi improved in July, it declined slightly in the rest of the country, in line with the demand for the hotel services,” the report stated.
Loss of jobs
These figures are in comparison to the 82,900 people who had been formally employed in hotels by February last year, meaning that over 35,000 workers who lost their jobs in the industry have not been reinstated.
The survey which sought to identify hotels’ levels of operations in July, interviewed 86 hotels ranging from top rated 5-star facilities to the small-scale outlets, from Nairobi and neighbouring towns (Machakos, Kiambu, and Kajiado), as well as other parts of the country including Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Naivasha, Nakuru, Nyeri, Kisii and Meru towns.
“In particular, all the respondent hotels in the rest of the country and 92 percent of hotels in Nairobi are in operation. A few hotels in Nairobi that are still closed cited low business as the main reason, since they largely depend on foreign business,” the report stated.
The CBK reported that the average bed occupancy in June and July was 30 percent, up from 19 percent in April, noting that occupancy in counties away from Nairobi was declining. BY DAILY NATION