‘Total collapse of demand’ forces Tsogo Sun to shut down hotels amid coronavirus fears

The Tsogo Sun hotel group is planning to shut down 36 of its properties around the country because of a “total collapse of demand” amid the coronavirus outbreak, EWN reported.

Tsogo said in a statement on Friday that closing a number of hotels in the key areas was due to seeking to reduce costs and capital expenditure further.

They also added that it would consolidate the available demand into the remaining operating hotels in those areas and the closures of its hotels will take place over the coming weeks, affecting 7,700 rooms or 40% of total room capacity.

The group noted booking channels would remain active for the close monitoring of demand patterns and that during the period, essential maintenance would be carried out.

Tsogo said multiple events and conferences had been postponed to the second half of the year as they were scheduled to take place from April to June.

The group confirmed that it had been approached by both the public and private healthcare sectors to turn its closed hotels into quarantine facilities and they were “endeavouring to assist in this regard”.

“Although near impossible to predict, the group is working on the assumption that hotels will begin to be reactivated by no later than July 2020 and that the corporate and government travel sectors will recover relatively quickly,” Tsogo said.

The group’s hotels and casinos include Southern Sun, Holiday Inn, Garden Court, Sun One, Arabella and Beverley Hills.

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