Hospitality industry reinforces COVID-19 safety measures

Hospitality industries in Accra have reinforced safety measures towards the prevention or spread of the coronavirus in conformity with World Health Organisation directives as well as Ghana’s domestic strategy to curtail the pandemic.

A visit to some hospitality centers by Ghana News Agency on Tuesday saw a dramatic adjustment of frontline operations, as some of the hotels, restaurants, fast food and indigenous food joints have all introduced measures to protect staff and patrons.

All of the hotels visited which included Tang Palace Hotel, Marriot Hotel, Alisa Hotel, Holiday Inn Africa Regent, Airport View, AH Hotel, Airport West, Tomreik Hotel, Green Oak Hotel, and East Gate among others have instituted COVID-19 safety measures.

Some of the safety measures include the provision of alcoholic sanitizers at the frontage for people to use before entering, provision of gloves and masks for staff and public education posters placed at vantage points.

Many managers assured the public that, as a hospitality center, the safety and comfort of the customers is a priority, “we will ensure that in spite of COVID-19, our environment is safe for all to use our service.

“We have also rolled-out measures in conformity with Presidential Directives to prevent the spread of the virus, as most frontline and other staffs have been trained and equipped to understand what COVID-19 is all about”.

GNA observed that at the Buka Restaurant as well as at other centres, in addition to the provision of hand sanitizers, scores have adopted social distancing sitting arrangement to ensure that customers are protected.

“We have also detailed a staff whose duty is to sanitize all door handles, and other surfaces every 30 minutes to ensure that any particles or droplets is cleared immediately,” an official told GNA.

Many of the managers told the GNA that, COVID-19 is having a major impact on their business as customers continue to cancel conferences and other social events booked earlier.

“The hotel industry is in distress, as our source of income is dwindling at a fast rate our overhead costs has increased astronomically as the issues of sanitizers, gloves and masks has become a major commodity on our purchasing list, which we never anticipated or budgeted for,” a manager told the GNA.

Other hotels have already started cutting down staffs whilst others are monitoring the business environment for the next four weeks to adopt appropriate measures on the management of staff.