Mixed bag of reactions over hotel virus safety

According to a survey, 40% of guests said virus safety measures at hotels during the pandemic were unsatisfactory, while over 37% felt the opposite.

Over 22% of survey respondents, however, said that they were not too concerned about covid-19 infection.

The Bangladesh Monitor, one of the country's leading travel and tourism publications, conducted the online survey from October 1-25 amongst a sample of 2,148 hotel guests. 

Of those who responded, around 62% were holidaymakers travelling with families, said Editor, Bangladesh Monitor, Kazi Wahidul Alam while revealing the findings Thursday.

He said the survey had found that around 31% had stayed at the hotels from October 1-25 for business, while the remaining had checked in for both work and leisure.

According to the survey, 40% people do not plan on staying in a hotel until the launch of a vaccine in the country, while around 28% would consider doing so in the next three months or so. However, about 31% participants did not mind staying at the hotel during this period.

The survey says around 71% people prefer to stay in a hotel when travelling within the country, 24% prefer to stay with relatives, and the remaining 5% with friends.

Of the guests, more than 44% prefer budget hotels, 33% seek four to five-star facilities and the rest prefer boutique hotels.

To mitigate the pandemic-driven crisis, around 53% of respondents feel that hotels need to provide other benefits to lure guests, including promotional rates, while about 33% say hotels need to adopt innovative business strategies. On the other hand, more than 13% are in favour of an aggressive marketing campaign.

Alexander Haeusler, general manager of Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden, said, "The pandemic dealt the hotel and tourism sector a massive blow. The number of guests is still meagre on weekdays, and even less on normal days."

"Several countries are providing various forms of support to sustain their tourism sector, but there have been no such declarations in Bangladesh. Relevant associations could discuss the issue with the government. Otherwise, it will take a long time to recover from this slump and offset the virus fallout," he added.

Speaking in his capacity as the chief guest at the event, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Chairman, Ram Chandra Das said, for a while now, the tourism sector of Bangladesh has been operating with a solid reputation. Business has also been profitable.

"We tried to secure government stimulus for this sector, to no avail," he commented. 

"In future, I believe we can apply lessons and best practices, which we learned during the crisis. At the same time, we must actively work on measures to lure foreign tourists to Bangladesh," he commented.

Hotel proprietors, management officials, tour operators and other stakeholders in the sector attended this event, during which findings of the survey were disseminated.