‘Covid’ brings tourism industry, hotels to a complete standstill
‘Pay cut, forced leave for workers’
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 14: Chairman of the Union of Hotel Owners, Ghazi Al-Nafisi, said the coronavirus crisis has completely paralyzed the tourism sector in general and resulted in unprecedented losses that continue to this day, adding 42 hotels in Kuwait incur losses amounting to 17.8 million dinars per month from their operating revenues, reports Al-Anba daily.
Al-Nafisi, in a special statement, added that 60% of the hotels in Kuwait are not functioning so far and have been closed in the current period, especially as the airport is not operating at its usual capacity and hotels depend mainly on tourists and foreign visitors.
Jobs
Most of the hotel jobs operating at the present time do not exceed 5 percent, while the situation continues amid news circulating about a second closure in the coming period, which may render a fatal blow to hotel owners.
He pointed out that the reluctance of people in Kuwait to booking hotels is due to many reasons, especially with the application of health measures followed by the hotels, including the closure of swimming pools, banning parties, seminars and conferences, the continued prevention of gatherings and buffets during breakfast, lunch and dinner, while limiting the services to providing meals to lodgers through room service only until further notice.
Al-Nafisi explained that his group owns four hotels, three of which are closed to date, warning of imminent crises the sector may face in the future, especially as the workers may not be able to continue their work, seeing the losses continue on a monthly basis.
Many hotels and restaurants in Kuwait have been forced to reduce the salaries of their employees and given them up to 3 months leave to reduce the financial losses incurred by the implementation of precautionary measures, he added.
Damage
He pointed out that the damage is not limited to hotel sector only, but also extends to many other productive service sectors such as food, transportation, construction, maintenance and others.
Al-Nafisi hopes that the next stage will be positive for the hotel sector, especially in the event of the reopening of direct flights with the banned countries, and subjecting those coming in to institutional quarantine inside Kuwaiti hotels, instead of hotels in Dubai, Turkey and others.
It is worth noting the hotels, since returning to work within the third phase of Cabinet’s plan to return to normal life, have adopted many measures to ensure the safety of both guests and workers using the latest technologies currently available in the market, including scanners or thermal cameras.