Hotelier, African Sun Limited (ASUN) cancelled 32 thousand room nights at the helm of Zimbabwe’s lockdown, Group Managing director Edwin Shangwa revealed in the company’s Integrated Annual Report 2019.
Zimbabwe instituted a nationwide lockdown which prohibited international and intercity travels and closed businesses except for the activities labelled as essential services by the government.
The tourism sector was not regarded as an essential service and operations of players in the sector were halted.
Shangwa says, “In response to the government-imposed lockdown, the Group temporarily closed all its eleven (11) hotels and two (2) casinos effective 30 March 2020.”
“As of 6 May 2020, statistics have shown that we had 31 907 room nights cancelled, quite substantial for the business.”
The government partially opened the economy, under level two lockdown, allowing formal companies to start operating using the World Health Organisation (WHO) safety guidelines for countries affected by COVID-19.
Shangwa says, “Under level Two, in line with the relaxation of the lockdown measures, the Group took a decision to reopen its hotels on a phased approach.”
“Under phase one, four (4) hotels being (Holiday Inn Harare, Holiday Inn Mutare, Holiday Inn Bulawayo and Great Zimbabwe Hotel) were reopened on 11 May 2020.”
Government is working on a plan to allow intra-city tourism, with inter-city travels still under restriction, in an effort to sustain the ailing sector.
In terms of business’s future, ASUN chairman Alex Makamure says there are significant headwinds in the Zimbabwean economy which make it difficult to forecast business performance, particularly business from the domestic market.
“Whilst, volume performance for the first three months of 2020 were in line with expectations, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has created unprecedented challenges for the travel and tourism industry,” he says.
“It is the company’s view that COVID – 19 pandemic could adversely impact travel and tourism by more than 25% in 2020, an equivalent of three months worth of tourism activity.”