Listed hotelier, African Sun Limited suffered a cumulative US 4.2 million loss in cancellations of hotel bookings as of end of March due to international travel restrictions arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, 263Chat Business has learnt.
More business has already been lost since the country went into lockdown starting April 1.
The distressed hospitality giant temporarily closed all its 11 hotels and two casinos in the country in March this year as business came to a halt due to lockdown restrictions locally and abroad.
The grounding of all passenger airlines and a host of other travel restrictions have hit the hospitality industry prompting the World Travel and Tourism Council to project at least 25 percent shrink in the global tourism and travel sector.
In its full year 2019 financial results statement, African Sun noted that the first half of 2020 was already in tatteres due to the Covid-19 and hoped resumption of operations can only take place second half of the year.
“Our current statistics have shown that we have had 14 512 room nights cancelled with a total revenue amount of US 4. 219 491 by 24 March 2020,”
“We expect the first half of 2020 to be severely impacted causing a permanent dent to the 2020 financial performance,” the company said.
Already, market watchers have predicted a much slower recovery for hospitality players more than any other sector when the global and local economies return to operate full throttle.
However positively, the Group managed to record ZWL 187 million for the 2019 financial year from ZWL 57 million recorded prior year.
This was on the back of a 68 percent growth in revenue for the year of ZWL 914 million from ZWL 545 million prior comparable period due to growth in the average daily rate of 102 percent as hotels aligned room rates with interbank exchange rate during the course of the year.
Operating expenses also went up to ZWL 487 million from ZWL 302 million.
The Group has however decided against declaring a dividend due to uncertainties in the economy going forward.
