A lot of our hotel bookings cancelled over COVID-19 – Movenpick GM

Mr Adnan Yucel, the General Manager, Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, has said since the outbreak of the coronavirus infections in Ghana the hotel has had a lot of booking cancellations, especially from international companies.

He said the hotel is taking some precautions to ensure that no staff and guest is affected.

“We are supposed to have some IMF, World Bank, UNDP and some United States related meetings, but they were all suddenly cancelled.

“Lots of cancellations from now through to May, which could have earned the facility hundreds and thousands of US dollars, which has affected us dramatically,” he said at a meeting between industry players and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) in Accra.

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the GTA, Mr Kwasi Agyeman asked hotel operators to be on the alert and ensure that all guests are screened.

He expressed optimism that the measures outlined by the government will help forestall the spread of the infection in Ghana.

He said: “The hospitality and tourism industry is very sensitive and any little spur of fear and panic would hit the industry badly.

“We have already seen a certain trend over the last few weeks and its worrying but based on the reassuring that we have from the Ghana Health Service and especially given the strong statement by the President we feel emboldened with the educational drive within the industry.”

“We are asking all hotels to ensure that in the hotel rooms these messages are boldly displayed and there are sanitised and other washing equipment that is available for people to wash their hands and avoid hand shakes.”

“Per the regulations that we have the staff has to have certain health certifications by the various assemblies and from now we are going to enforce that because they are the front liners and have to ensure they are safe.”

“Coming at the very successful end of the year of return, this is the time that we are picking up the pieces for the beyond the return. As more countries put out travel restrictions and get infected, definitely the impact would be felt.”

“We are monitoring, globally there have been a negative 63 per cent cancellations of hotel flights and about 34 of hotel bookings and that tells you that we need to prepare.”

Ghana has recorded her first two cases of coronavirus. The cases were confirmed on Thursday, 12 March 2020.

They were brought in by two people who had returned to Ghana from Norway and Turkey. The cases were confirmed by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

Health Minister Dr Kweku Agyemang-Manu, who broke the news at an emergency press conference on Thursday night, said the two patients have been quarantined and are stable.