The ongoing Covid-19 vaccination has been lauded as a major step towards the resumption of activities in the travel and hospitality industry, which has borne the brunt of disruptions caused by pandemic.
Ahead of presentation of the 3.66 trillion shillings budget, PKF CEO Alpesh Vadher says some of the coronavirus containment measures such as the night curfew are hurting the hospitality industry and other sectors.
For the year ending June 30th government has undertaken several initiatives towards tourism recovery among them 500 million shillings for marketing, while two billion shillings was set aside to support renovation of facilities and the restructuring of business operations.
One billion shillings stimulus package was earmarked for engaging 5,500 community scouts under the Kenya Wildlife Service and another 1 billion shillings to support 160 community conservancies.
However, one year on, the biting effect of Covid-19 is still reverberating in the hospitality value chain.
Data from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance indicates that at least 3.1 million jobs in travel and tourism were affected in the year 2020 as hotels, bars and restaurants, tour operators, airlines, travel agents and their suppliers and support services recorded low business.
For taxi drivers, curio businesses among the several indirect dependents of the hospitality industry anxiety is rife with the looming threat of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Their expectation is that the proposed budget will make provisions for industry players to remain afloat.
However, for accounting expert Al Pesh Vadher, the ongoing vaccination exercise is key towards the resumption of activities in the hospitality industry.
He further proposed government to involve the private sector in covid -19 vaccine sourcing to hasten the intervention.
All eyes are focused on Ukur Yatani’s briefcase and its contents for the hospitality industry
Source: KBC
