By Tony Yayo
Sierra Leone’s tourism sector has been hit by Corona Virus epidemic although the country is yet to record a case.
Restaurants, bars, and other touristic businesses in are now in a low key status in the past few months.
The closure of business in the tourism sector is closely linked to government’s observance of precautionary measures to ward off the Corona virus.
Record of visitors into the country is at a low rate, a situation that badly affect the management capacity of hotels especially looking after the welfare of personnel.
A hotel manager in Freetown said the new policies designed by the government have a devastating impact on the tourism sector with low number of guests and tourists.
The tourism sector, he noted, was entirely dependent on travel, trade and tourism for its sustenance. “The massive spate of cancellations of flights in recent weeks has weakened the ability of hotels across the country to do business,” he said.
The absence of new business on books is only adding to the grim story ahead.
The hotel boss also said they were losing a lot of money and possibly contemplating reducing staff strength to cushion the operational cost of their organisations.
“The tourism sector is one of the largest employment sectors of the economy catering for hundreds of thousands of local employees,” he emphasised.
The hotel manager called on the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs to prevail on government for a tax cut to help alleviate the looming crisis.