By Amin Kef Sesay
The devastating effect of the Coronavirus pandemic in the world is still unfolding of which Sierra Leone is not an exception.
Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio in his New Direction Manifesto chose tourism as one of the growth sectors for the diversification of Sierra Leone’s economy due to the pandemic. The tourism and hospitality sector has become the hardest hit with the grounding of flights, closure of hotels and tourism facilities among others.
In a joint statement by ILO, FAO, IFAD and WHO on the 13 October, 2020 (www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2020) on the impact of Covid-19 on people’s livelihoods, their health and food systems indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The statement indicated that the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.
Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable because the majority lack social protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive assets. Without the means to earn an income during lockdowns, many are unable to feed themselves and their families. For most, no income means no food, or, at best, less food and less nutritious food.
In Freetown, the only 5 Star Hotel that opened its doors to the public throughout this pandemic is the Atlantic Lumley Hotel a luxury seafront hotel nested in the lovely Lumley Beach.
The hotel’s Human Resource Manager, Lonnel Saied Kargbo said when Sierra Leone recorded its first case on March 31st, it took them back to the drawing board to know what will be the next action, plan and future for the hotel at that time.
They started by collecting names of staff by department through the department managers and they began to sort them out.
He said few were sent home for them to start two weeks on and off alternatively.
Atlantic Lumley Hotel was among the first that introduced the weekly working alternative duty in Sierra Leone as a means of maintaining social human distance.
He spoke about their meeting with the Ministry of Labor who also was trying to get the hotel consent not to terminate staff as it happened during Ebola because of the crisis as that will affect them serious. “We signed a communiqué with them. Some were sent on temporary day off and they were receiving Le 250,000 monthly that was the procedure the hotel used which made us to operate till date.”
According to the HR, those who were due leave were allowed to go on leave and a letter was given to them.
The hotel team was working round the clock to come with ideas of keeping the hotel running.
Another idea the hotel brought was the cutting down of accommodation fee from $150 to $78 because flights were grounded. “When we noticed that the hotel was getting dry, we began to cater for the locals by cutting down prices of accommodation and through that people were coming for weekends”.
Atlantic Lumley Hotel also cut down on the prices of food to about 70% and that too attracted lots of customers who described it as cost recovery hotel.
Lonnel Saied Kargbo described the situation as one that was not easy for them considering the cost involved in running hotel like this.
“Even if you have one guest, you have to serve that person with all the requirement of the hotel with the standard facility and hospitality. But through our professionalism and our hospitality expertise we able to cope up till date.”
Lonnel Saied Kargbo commended their professional staff, leaders and team that brought ideas for them to stand the test of time this he said has made them to cope in any normal or abnormal situation.
Sierra Leone President Bio some months ago gave three months bailout to over 500 businesses in the hospitality sector with his Social Safety Net programme to get through these extremely tough times.
