(TAN): The Egyptian government is checking hotels in resort cities to ensure the COVID-19 procedures are being correctly implemented before they partially reopen for local tourists, reports said.
The inspection also involves evaluation of the general readiness of the hotels before they start hosting tourists, as per reports.
According to reports, representatives from Egypt’s tourism ministry, health ministry, Egyptian Hotel Association, and South Sinai, Red Sea, Luxor and Aswan provinces constituted the review committees, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities responsible for monitoring tourism and hotel facilities, Abdel-Fattah al-Aasy, said.
He also said the committees have initiated their examination of the Egypt hotels as the approved hotels are likely to start hosting guests starting the holiday of Eid, that comes after the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan, reports said.
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He reportedly added the hotels have to conform to the guidelines and employ the measures laid down by the cabinet in compliance with the rules of the World Health Organization.
“Only those hotels that meet the anti-COVID-19 precautionary measures will be allowed to receive local guests with a limit of a 25% occupancy,” al-Aasy was quoted by the Economic Times Travel World as saying.
Apart from functioning at 25% capacity, the must also have a clinic with a resident doctor, install disinfection equipment and screen temperatures at regular intervals to resume operations, as per reports. According to reports, other measures that must be included include giving employees rapid COVID-19 tests while entering resorts and making guests pre-register online. A hotel floor or small building must reportedly be allocated as a quarantine area for positive or suspected cases.
Further, hotel restaurants will only be able to serve pre-set menus, and put wider spaces between tables, while open buffets and shisha will still be prohibited, reports said. Resorts will reportedly not be allowed to organise any weddings, parties or entertainment programmes.
Earlier this month, Egypt had reportedly said hotels will be able to scale up operations to a maximum 50% capacity starting June 1.
However, al-Aasy reportedly said scaling up capacity over a quarter will depend on the course the pandemic takes.
“Increasing hotel occupancy over 25% in the near future depends on the situation of the pandemic in Egypt,” he added.
Maged Fazwi, chief of Egyptian Hotel Association reportedly said 172 hotels had applied for the review as they got ready to partially resume business.
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Egypt closed its hotels in March around the same time it suspended operations of international flights, resulting in a closure of the tourism sector that contributes up to 15% of the country’s GDP, reports said.
The move to inspect hotels before partial reopening came after the government announced a “coexistence” plan to restart economic activities while combating COVID-19, as per reports.
Data from Johns Hopkins University showed Egypt has 11,228 cases of infection including 592 deaths.
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