Coronavirus forced hospitality sector to change business model – Roman Krabel

Manager of the Accra City Hotel Roman Krabel has said the Coronavirus pandemic which has hindered the movement of people have greatly impacted the hospitality sector.

According to him, hotel rooms in Accra are mostly patronized by foreigners.

He explained that the occupancy rate in hotels in Accra has dropped significantly because tourists are locked out of Ghana.

“Life is not easy right now for all kinds of industries. Hospitality, of course, we lost a lot of tourists’ business people from all over the world”.

Mr Krabel indicated that the hospitality industry losing out of clients has forced it to change its business model.

“The business model has now been shifted to focus more on the local market. So basically I can tell you that we had about 80 percent of our rooms being occupied by foreigners. That is before Coronavirus. But now we have about 80 percent of room occupancy being locals”.

He added that although times have been rough, his outfit has not layed off workers.

“We did not lay off any worker. The revenues made now are not impressive. It is not enough to pay my bills but we are still paying all workers only 50 percent salary, including myself,” he indicated.

The food and hospitality sector is at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis globally, not least because it was heavily impacted by the lockdowns.

Globally, the hospitality sector has been significantly affected by the pandemic. However, COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of the food and hospitality industry particularly strongly in Ghana.

The food supply chain and hospitality sector have been paralyzed by the initial restrictions, inevitably leading to unemployment among cooks and kitchen staff, as there is no instrument such as "short-time working" schemes in Ghana to absorb the situation.