— but NICIL CEO says Guyana likely to bounce back faster than other Caribbean countries

CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Colvin Heath-London, estimates that the hotel industry in Guyana will lose over US$4M in revenue as a result of COVID-19 but will bounce back faster than other Caribbean countries due to unique advantages.

In an invited interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, Heath-London said that due to the international travel ban implemented to curb the spread of the virus, accommodation levels at all NICIL guest houses, lounges and hotels are “ridiculously low”.

“Occupancy at all these facilities is way below 10 per cent,” he said. “We’re still open for walk-in customers and we’re trying the keep the staff working during this period.

The Marriott Hotel is owned by Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), a company owned by the Government of Guyana through its shareholding company, NICIL.

Some of the other hospitality and accommodation facilities NICIL manages include the Watooka Guest House, the LBI Estate Lounge, the Berbice Inn, and the Skeldon Heritage Resort.

Seeking to maintain job security, staff at these facilities with leave due were sent on leave, while others remain to assist with the daily operations and inventory-related work.

The hope is that the travel restriction will be lifted soon enough to allow for a transition back to normalcy.

“When it comes to the point where we can’t afford to keep the staff working, then we’ll have to make arrangements,” he said.

Over a three to four month period, beginning March, 2020, he estimates that the entire hotel sector in Guyana will lose over US$4M.

On the international scale, Tourism Economics reported that the impact to the US travel industry is nine times worse than 9/11 and every eight in 10 hotel rooms are empty.

Prior to the emergence of the virus in Guyana in early March, Heath-London said occupancy levels across the entire hotel sector in Guyana was high as a result of the steady and growing interest in Guyana.

This is primarily as a result of the promising new sector of oil and gas which has attracted business persons from all around the world.

Last year, Guyana has hosted numerous business expos, tradeshows and conferences while investors poured into the country seeking out joint venture and other business opportunities across sectors.

It is for this same reason that the NICIL Head expects that when travel to the world is reopened, Guyana will benefit from business tourism long before the world’s population ‘warm up’ to leisure tourism once again.

“It will take some time but Guyana will bounce back a little quicker than the rest of the region because the persons that come to our hotels are mainly business-oriented people unlike in the Caribbean,” he said.

Added to this, he said that Guyana does not have the high amount of rooms [collectively] as in other Caribbean countries which allows the country to face less of a loss in that regard.

Currently, CARICOM heads are discussing the possibility or re-opening regional borders when the time is right, based on mutually-agreed protocols among countries.

The move is intended to ensure trade and travel among the countries until the world is entirely back to previous international travel arrangements. Even so, Heath-London noted that most guests to hotels in Guyana come from outside of the Caribbean Region.

When it comes to his assessment of which business of accommodation would be affected the most, he said that this is likely to be small accommodation facilities. Should the government agree to some form of stimulus for the private sector in this regard, he believes that small accommodation facilities should receive priority.

“The smaller lodges would feel the squeeze much quicker because of their room count and lack of occupancy and they won’t have much financial reserves,” he said.

“There’ll be need for some stimulus but I can’t speak to the extent. Smaller [facilities] would suffer more and some stimulus might be needed across the sector but the level of that we won’t be able to speak to.”