Crisis in hotels, tourism affects 21,000 workers

The crisis caused by Covid-19 has affected some 21,000 jobs in the hotel and tourism sector in Mozambique, the sector’s union said on Tuesday. “Most of the establishments have been closed, placing 21,000 workers, equivalent to 33% of the 64,000 throughout the country, in deep uncertainty,” said Luis Macuácua, secretary-general of the National Union of Hotel, Tourism and Similar Workers (Sintihots).

Seven thousand workers have been laid off, another 7,000 have seen their contracts suspended and about 6,000 sent on vacation, according to the source. The organisation said workers in the sector do not know what is going to happen to their jobs and the “survival conditions” have been reduced. Maputo province is the worst affected, with around 10,000 workers, followed by Inhambane, in the south of the country, and Nampula, in the north, with around 2,500 jobs each. “We ask the government to give employers incentives to create conditions for hotels, tourism and similar establishments to operate,” the union added. In the best of the scenarios predicted by the Confederation of Mozambique’s Economic Associations (CTA), losses in tourism are equivalent to one-fifth of all the business sector’s losses due to the new coronavirus.

 

Mozambique had, by Tuesday morning, 209 cases of infection by the new coronavirus, one death and 71 people have recovered.

The government is expected to announce the next steps this week after the state of emergency was decreed on 1 April and extended until 30 May – with the Constitution allowing two more extensions. During the same period, there are restrictions on public transport, the wearing of masks on public roads is compulsory, schools are closed and the issuing of visas to enter the country is suspended. In Africa, there have been 3,471 confirmed deaths in more than 115,000 infected in 54 countries, according to the most recent statistics on the pandemic in that continent. Worldwide, according to an assessment by the AFP news agency, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused more than 344,000 deaths and infected more than 5.4 million people in 196 countries and territories.