Breathing life back into African hospitality after Covid-19

Africa’s resilience in the past will stand it in good stead for recovery in the future. What its hospitality industry needs now to ensure its own revival is a state of mind focused beyond recovery and to reinvention. By Bernard Cassar, development director of BON Hotels

Africa is a continent that has had many obstacles placed in its historic path and yet, time and again, it has overcome these, from states of war and tyranny, to dreaded diseases.

Rwanda recovered from genocide to become one of Africa’s most successful nations. Nigeria and South Africa, both with democracies now firmly in place, respectively rose out of civil wars and apartheid. Ethiopia’s years of famine have been replaced by an economic growth rate that earlier this year was said to be one of the fastest in the world.

We are a resilient continent and, as we have done with challenges in the past, we will rise from Covid-19 as well – and, along with it, the welcoming doors of the African hospitality industry will open once again. What we need now are plans to prepare for when this happens, and a state of mind that stays focused beyond just recovery, but reinvention as well.

For the short-term, this means turning our African sights firmly towards our own local markets and making these our priority. In terms of our own hotel group, this was indeed the reason we got into the market in the first place – to develop an African industry by Africans for Africans – but, for the immediate future, once lockdowns permit the kind of movement we all rely on, this is the mantra by which all establishments will need to abide.

In our own markets, predominantly those in Nigeria and South Africa, many of our bookings pre-Covid-19 relied on business travel in particular. Post-pandemic, it will continue to do the same but the opportunities now exist to diversify those offerings by encouraging “bleisure” travel. In other words, doing whatever we can to encourage business travellers to extend their stay through attractive incentives and packages that will, in turn, stimulate the desire – and confidence – to return to destinations with their families in tow.

Our offerings will also need to extend beyond a room, a bed and a meal. For some time before Covid-19, as hoteliers, we fretted about the rise of disruptors in our industry. Now is the time to become disruptors ourselves.

For instance, we saw the extensive rise of the experience economy before Covid-19, and for those hoteliers who have not yet geared up for this, now is the time to do so, as this will make the difference between bookings or blank reservations screens. Use this time to find unique, never-before-explored partners who will join forces to offer carefully curated experiences, always with health, hygiene and safety top of mind. Train and enable your staff to be knowledgeable in these offerings with each and every guest they come into contact with when your doors start to reopen.

It is, of course, among our work force where the pandemic is hitting the hardest, and likewise it is here that efforts will need to be focused to restrengthen our teams – and the vital role they play in the African economy – as quickly as possible. As it is, a study by the United Nations estimates that at least two million direct and indirect jobs in travel and tourism in Africa, to a value of at least US$50 billion, will be lost because of Covid-19.

Trust in the travel market will return, but it must begin with a focus on “local” – and placing offerings on the table that enable access to experiences that many locals may have previously perceived to either be out of their reach or only aimed at foreign markets. It will also be by growing our domestic markets in the short-term, that these markets will, in turn, begin to expand and explore intraAfrica, across the borders of provinces and into other countries as these reopen.

Who is Bernard Cassar?

With a career in the industry spanning close to four decades, Bernard Cassar is the Development Director of BON Hotels, which owns, manages and markets hotels across Africa.