By; OLADELE ADEDAYO,Ado-Ekiti
A prominent member of the Hospitality and Tourism Management of Nigeria (HATMAN) snd the Proprietor of the Prosperous Royal Hotels and Resort, Mr. Abiodun Isinkaiye, has expressed worry over the low patronage of the business in Ekiti State adducing the unwarranted situation to the rising insecurity challenges and the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Isinkaiye said the business has always been experiencing worsening situation in respect of issue of epileptic power supply in Nigeria.
The business magnate stated this while fielding reporters’ questions on Monday as part of the activities lined up for the 2021 Annual Public Lecture and Awards Presentation, by Nigeria Union of Journalists ,Correspondents’ Chapel, Ekiti Council, slated for October 28, in Ado-Ekiti.
Isinkaiye, however appealed to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and the state governors to work hard to tame the abduction of Nigerians by gunmen, which he said had reduced the profit margin of every sector of the economy, with hospitality sector being the worst hit.
He said: “Management of hotels business had always been a problem in Nigeria in view of epileptic electricity supply we have been facing for long. We rely on diesel as a source of power, which reduces our profit margin because power supply has to run for 24 hours to give our customers comfort.
“As we were still trying to cope with that, the Covid -19 and kidnapping reared their ugly heads. The two had really affected hospitality business in Nigeria negatively, in fact, we can’t quantify the hardship that we are facing in the sector, it is of highest order.
“Since the two started in full force, business environment has changed. The number of visitors to our facilities have reduced,fearing that they could be kidnapped or contracted Covid -19 virus.
“When those who are visiting the state from the government or corporate world are to be five, the management will cut down the number to two because of these problems and these are the people we rely mostly for patronage.
“Except we are deceiving ourselves,it has not been easy with the operators of this business in recent time. Again,though we are not getting many visitors and the few ones we get must be safe and secured,and this makes us to also invest more in providing security so that our visitors won’t be kidnapped.
“The government also is enforcing Covid-19 compliant in all facilities. We are investing more monies buying sanitisers and other facilities that are making safety protocols easier, which gulped huge amount of money and constituting huge burden to us”.
Isinkaiye described the hospitality as a reliable employment-generating sector in the country, that requires attention of the government at all levels.
The proprietor also pleaded with government for more patronage to ensure the survival of the business in Ekiti State.
