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By staff reporter
April 27, 2020 (Ezega.com) – Eighty-eight percent of hotels in Addis Ababa are forced to shut down or reduce services due to lack of occupancy due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The remaining 12 percent is being used as isolation centers for COVID-12 suspects who arrived in the capital from different parts of the world.
A survey by the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association revealed that of 130 hotels, which are members of the association, 56 percent of them are closed, 32 percent have discontinued service in part due to the pandemic.
“Foreign citizens were confirmed positive for COVID-10 in Ethiopia and that contributed negatively to the hotel business whose reception capacity has been reduced to two percent,” the study noted.
According to the study, the industry is incurring an estimated $ 35 million per month as hotel occupancy rates dropped to fractions of what they used to be.
“If situations continue in this way, hotels will run out of operating budget and will not be able to pay their employees’ wages. Hotel owners need to finance their business. if not, they will be forced to close their businesses, “he said.
The association said it is negotiating with the government and financial institutions to resolve the industry’s economic crisis.
According to the study, 82 percent of hotel owners have faced a large debt burden, and associations are discussing with commercial banks possible solutions in which debts will be paid over a long period of time.
The association pledged to support the government and the public by coordinating hotel owners to provide rooms as quarantine centers if the spread of the virus turns out to be the worst.
In a recent interview with local media, Tourism Ethiopia CEO Sileshi Girma said that the livelihood of all actors in the tourism chain, including tour operators, service providers in tourist destinations will be at risk if the pandemic is not contains as soon as possible.
According to the CEO, at least Birr 2.5 billion is required to subsidize the hotel industry before the total collapse.
Hotels are unlikely to be open in the near future, as tourists from Europe and the United States are locked up.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia has reported a new case of coronavirus (COVID-19), out of 957 samples taken in the past 24 hours.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 123, but 41 of them have recovered.
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