Major hotels in city hit hard by travel restrictions

By CLARISSA MOI
MAJOR hotels in Port Moresby, like other businesses, have seen a major downturn in business during the Covid-19 state of emergency.
The Stanley Hotel & Suites general manager Geoff Haigh said that the country’s tourism industry relied heavily on visitors, business travellers and tourists to survive.
“With the restrictions to international travel and the 14-day quarantine requirements, the challenge is to remain viable with very few business opportunities,” he said.
“We managed this by retrenching more than half our staff which was a very distressing exercise.
“We cut all non-essential services, put a hold all non-essential capital work and shut down 70 per cent of our rooms to save power.
“We closed our signature restaurant and lounge to reduce costs.”
Haigh said the staff had been living on site with all meals and accommodation provided by the hotel.
“This has made a huge difference in managing the hotel and we could not have continued without implementing this arrangement,” he told The National.
Haigh added that although the country had been largely isolated from the coronavirus, the economic impact to the hotel, and all service industries globally, would be felt for some time to come.
Holiday Inn general manager Robert Coates said the Covid-19 had posed a great challenge on the hotel and the global tourism and hospitality industry as a whole, but they were doing everything to come out of the crisis.
“We’ve been measured in our response and thoughtful in our actions throughout this crisis, always focused on being there for our guests, hotel teams and owners,” Coates said.
“And we are focused on coming out of the crisis in good shape.
“Recovery might take some time, but we have an experienced team here at Holiday Inn Port Moresby and are ready to welcome guests once the Covid-19 state of emergency is lifted.
“That includes putting the right measures in place to reassure guests that it is safer than ever to travel.”
Meanwhile, Airways Hotel general manager Sushil Gordon said the hotel had seen a major downturn with the travel ban (domestically and internationally).
“We have had some of our groups cancelled,” he said.
Gordon said one of the challenges encountered was to keep operating without laying off staff.
He said, however, some staff had to go on leave while some took part of their long service pay.
While commenting on the hotel’s plans going forward, Gordon said it was to keep the operations status quo and keep the costs down.