Coronavirus restrictions has impair Cape Verde tourism

For many years, the Cape Verde Islands are known as hot spots for tourists, famous for its warm tropical climate, volcanic islands, outstanding musicians, and delicious cuisine. Americans may not have heard much about Cape Verde, but Europeans are much more familiar with the islands as a winter escape.

The Cape Verde islands are known locally as Cabo Verde, the “Green Cape” are in the Atlantic Ocean about 600 kilometers away from Senegal on Africa’s western coast, but over the years, the islands have profited from an investment in tourism where it represents a quarter of its nations gross domestic product GDP. In 2019 there were 820,000 registered tourists. But now, because of the coronavirus spread, the tourism sector has been hard hit. It has seen a drastic drop hurting the local economy where visitors are not forthcoming, resulting in many job losses in the tourism sector, especially the hotel and casino space.

According to a local news agency report, a worker in the hotel space said, “I worked in the Iberostar hotel for almost four years, but now I’m jobless,” Dina Brito “I’ll be getting unemployment benefits for five months, but after that, I won’t know how to feed my kids,” the helpless women added.

Tourists are now few and far between in the whole of Cape Verde as Covid-19 infections spread. As a result of this, jobs are also rare on the island of Boa Vista, which almost exclusively lives off the hospitality sector. Hundreds of hotel employees have been placed on short-term work or have been laid off, and restaurants are empty, casino space that serves as a tourist are also feeling the pinch, and cab drivers don’t have any tourist clients.

A restaurant owner in the hotel said, “I used to make about $273 a month excluding tips,” Brito said, “Now the money I get is not even enough to pay my rent.” In the summer of this year, the authorities imposed a strict entry ban that was lifted in October. However, many hotels, resorts, casino space altogether, ten islands are still closed as mentioned; tourism is an integral part of the economy. It accounts for a quarter of the nation’s GDP, which has come to a standstill.

Nevertheless, one of the country’s economic professors, Jose Lopes da Velga said the Cape Verdean economy would be hit hard because tourists are not forthcoming. Forecast sees GDP shrink by 4.8%, but it could even be worse as the shadow economy on Cape Verde accounts for 12.5% of overall output without taxes being paid. “We have to adopt measures to get the economy going again, but we can only do this with aid from abroad,” da Veiga said. However, the pandemic crisis has shown how many African countries have failed to diversify its economy, relying solely on one primary income source. Cape Verde is among the list of African countries feeling the pinch of the outbreak.

In contrast, the country’s official policy has shown the nations invest mainly and massively in tourism. Cape Verde, which only gained independence from Portugal in 1975, decided to expand its mass tourism sector and turn two islands into holiday paradise locations, featuring direct flights from Europe and all-inclusive packages. This has led to agriculture and other industry being neglected, which probably a mistake. “Our economy must not rely on tourism a lesson for us, we also have to boost fishery for instance,” economic adviser Carlitos Fortes from Banco Caboverdiano de.

Negocios, he said. Cape Verdian Tourism Minister Carlos Santos conceded that the pandemic would keep taking a heavy toll on the economy in the years ahead “we will only reach 2019 level of tourist numbers again in 2023, and that worrying us a lot.” That’s understandable all the more so since officials in his ministry had initially forecasting of reaching a milestone this year by registering more than a million tourist. Still, nature comes to play its part nobody saw this covid-19 getting this level.

As mentioned, cape Verde tourism and hospitality sector have felt the pinch of the restrictions same be said of the casino business, which is strategically located in hotel space to serve tourist of which the exciting country nightlife and white beaches attract visitors from all walks of life from North Africa, West Africa, Europe, part of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. However, it is quite challenging for the tourism industry and casino business owners during this unprecedented time.

About Post Author