Vijayawada: Hotels, restaurants, resorts to resume business

Vijayawada: After a gap of more than 70 days, hotels, restaurants and resorts in the State will be reopened on Monday. The Statehas accorded permissionto the establishments to resume the activity.

Separate guidelines were issued by the government to the hotel managements, staff and customers. More emphasis is on enforcing physical distance in the hotels and restaurants and the hotel staff and management should mainly focus on sanitisation.

As the Covid-19 cases are on the rise in the State, the State government has decided to enforce the Covid-19 guideline strictly. As per the orders, only 50 percent area in the hotels and restaurants will be allocated for seating so that physical distance can be maintained. Consequently, the number of chairs and tables in the hotels will come down.

The staff has to clean the table and chair and sanitise as each customer leaves the premises. Moreover, the hostel staff should frequently sanitise the door handles, water taps and other places with which customers will come in contact. Wearing of masks is made mandatory and the hotel managements are directed to keep the premises hygiene. Hotels have to use disposable plates and water glasses as it is safe.

Thermal screening is must for all customers. The hotels are arranging the thermal screening and sanitisation facilities. K Sudhakar manager of a hotel in Vijayawada said some hotels have restaurants and some donot have restaurant facility. Keeping in view of the response from the people, the hotel will take a decision on reopening of the restaurants.

The district administration has asked the hotels and restaurants to follow the guidelines issued by the government very strictly to ensure safety of customers and staff. District Collector Md Imtiaz and Municipal Commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh on Saturday conducted a review meeting with the leaders of the hotels association and instructed them to follow the guidelines. The hospitality sector suffered huge loss due to the lockdown. Now, the government has given permission to reopen the hotels and restaurants.

But it is not an easy task to attract the customers. Due to lock down, the income drastically declined among the working class in the State. Moreover, coronavirus impact is clearly visible as everyday new cases are reported. Many people still consider it is unsafe to visit hotels and restaurants frequently as positive cases are reportedly regularly.

It will take many months to the hospitality sector to retain the business. On the other hand, the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation also decided to reopenresorts and restaurants in the State. The APTDC is running hotels and resorts across the State. Tourism Minister Avanti Srinivas announced that the restaurants and resorts under the management ofthe APTDC would be reopened very soon.