5-star hotels ‘fully booked’ despite Omicron concerns

The hospitality industry in Bangladesh is witnessing an encouraging number of hotel rooms being booked for the year-end winter holiday season, despite concerns over the looming Omicron variant threat.

Five-star hotels’ occupancy rate is almost at the pre-Covid levels thanks to booming domestic tourism across the country. Packages and promotions offered by tourism operators and hotels for attracting more guests have further contributed to the increase in hotel bookings.

But many foreign tourists are cancelling their reservations at many five-star hotels because of the looming threat of the Omicron variant, said insiders, adding that as the new variant spread across the globe, some countries are implementing travel restrictions yet again.

Against such a backdrop, the industry stakeholders called upon the government to take all precautionary measures needed to stop the new South African variant from entering Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has already recommended imposing travel bans on countries where the new variant has been found.

The committee also suggested that people who arrived in Bangladesh in the last 14 days from any of the countries where Omicron has been detected should be in institutional quarantine, and has stressed the need for wearing face masks everywhere, including in educational institutions, and the limiting of mass gatherings.

On August 11, the government had relaxed stringent restrictions across the country when the Covid-19 infection rate was decreasing to keep economic activities moving.

‘Occupancy now nearly 100%’

With the arrival of the winter season, both the local and the foreign tourists started booking international-standard hotels and motels across the country.

Since the shortened but pleasant winter season lasts in Bangladesh only from October to February, both the local and international tourists are now gradually occupying the hotels’ rooms.

“Nearly 100 per cent rooms have now been occupied mostly by foreign guests, and this trend will continue until February,” said Rezwan Maruf, director of Sales and Marketing of InterContinental Dhaka while speaking to The Business Post.

On the contrary, an official of Le Méridien Dhaka, has said, “More than 35 per cent of our guests are foreigners who come to Bangladesh for business purposes. But, now we are facing a severe setback as many of the expected guests are now canceling their prior bookings after voiding their trips to Bangladesh on the grounds of Omicron concerns.

According to the Bangladesh International Hotel Association, currently an estimated 60 per cent – 70 per cent of the total guests in Dhaka and Chattogram based five-star hotels are foreigners. Most of them are from the United State of America, Russia and China.

The foreign guests mainly include RMG buyers, officials of various development or mega projects such as Padma Bridge, Metro Rail, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Matarbari, Payra Port, diplomatic missions and other international organisations.

Besides, a significant number of local wealthy people are also travelling from one tourist destination to another across the country, insiders said.

“Occupancy rate in four to five-star hotels is gradually increasing during the last two month while this rate is expected to reach 100 per cent in January,” said HM Hakim Ali, president of Bangladesh International Hotel Association (BIHA) while speaking to The Business Post.

BIHA is the leading representative organisation in the hospitality industry, representing more than 21 International hotels in Bangladesh.

Hakim added, “As we do not have a lack of seriousness on the Omicron threat because the government’s handling capacity is now enhanced further compared to 2020, hotel industries are now hoping to recoup the losses incurred due to the prolonged Covid-19 fallout.”

While speaking to The Business Post, NM Karim, chairman of Ocean Paradise Hotel and Resort in Cox’s Bazar, said, “Around 65 per cent rooms are now being occupied on weekends, while the figure goes down by 35 per cent to 40 per cent on weekdays.

“Among the guests, around 15 per cent are foreigners who work at the Rohingya camps or Matarbari project. Hopefully, occupancy rate will be increased further until February 2022, until and unless we are again plagued by the Omicron variant.”

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, a total of 17 five-stars, six four-star and 20 three-star hotels are currently operating in Bangladesh.

Star-standard hotel authorities say they have survived financial hardships amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and most of the hotels did not cut the salaries or jobs of their staff.

Stakeholders say more than 80 per cent of the five-star hotels usually remain booked with guests during winter season, and it has reached nearly 100 per cent this year.

The occupancy rate dropped five to seven per cent due to the Covid-19 pandemic and consequently, the local hotel industry incurred an estimated losses worth around Tk 3,500 crore while the financial incentives from the government were also not sufficient, they noted.

Apart from the star quality hotels, there are wide-range of countywide resort-based guest houses located at Sajek Vally, Sylhet, Sundarbans, Chittagong Hill-Tracts, Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata. All such resorts are now fully booked.  Such tourism is also getting popular day by day in nearby Gazipur, Savar and adjacent areas of the mighty Padma River.

Inbound tourist operators say the business of local five-star hotels largely depend on the visit of foreign officials from various development or business partners since Bangladesh is yet to become a global hotspot for the globetrotters due to its poor infrastructure, as well as poor branding about the country’s heritage and major tourist attractions.

Bangladesh – as a South Asian nation – is the world’s least “touristy” destination, according to data obtained by the World Bank. That data was analysed by Priceonomics, which compared the number of tourists arriving in each country with the size of its population.

In this regard, travel agency and tour operator Akashbari Holidays’ CEO Touhidul Alam Milky said, “Tourism-based countries have been portraying their touristic spots in an eye-catching manner for quite a long time. These countries even established separate zones, recreation hubs and tourism-friendly atmospheres only for attracting tourists from abroad.

“We will be able to see such an effort only after launching the Cox’s Bazar Sabrang tourism park but the same authorities alone cannot do the same for every destination across the country.”