Burkina: postponement of Fespaco, bad news for the hotel sector already in crisis

Ouagadougou, March 16, 2020. AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

It is a blow to the hospitality and tourism sector in Burkina Faso.

After the National Culture Week, the Ouagadougou International Handicrafts Fair and now the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (Fespaco), bad news has continued for these important economic sectors.

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with our correspondent in Ouagadougou,

Yaya Boudani

For a year, with the coronavirus pandemic, everything has slowed down in the hotel and tourism industries in the country.

The professional association of hoteliers and restaurateurs in Burkina Faso, which counted on these events to get their heads out of the water, calls for government intervention to save their sector.

Since 2011, with the mutiny of part of the army and the first terrorist attacks in the capital in 2016, has been added to this the health crisis due to Covid-19.

Thus, the hotel and tourism sector is going through very difficult times, according to Célestin Zoungrana, president of the Professional Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs of Burkina Faso.

“ 

Really, the sector is not doing well and it's been a year, moreover, that tourists have not come.

These events were still sources of funding for the sector,

 ”he explains.

The organization of events such as the National Culture Week, the Ouagadougou International Handicraft Fair or the Pan-African Film and Television Festival were opportunities to breathe life into their finances.

These canceled events, hospitality and tourism professionals are waiting for measures to relieve a sector already in crisis.

" 

We want - whether at the level of taxes or at the level of taxes - that the municipalities, too, review the taxes a little because at present, nothing works

 ", calls Célestin Zoungrana.

An interministerial commission had assessed the consequences of the health crisis on the sector but with the postponement of Fespaco, a readjustment of this assessment is necessary, according to the president of the Professional Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs of Burkina Faso.

►Also read: Fespaco 2021, the voice of African cinema, has been postponed sine die

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• Burkina Faso

• Culture

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