The new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, has dashed hopes of tourism and hospitality sector to recover after almost one and half years a lull.

The dip in infection numbers observed in the last few months had given a ray of hope to many tour and travel operators as well as hotels, as tourists s had made end of year bookings Players were warming up to receive these guests only for the new variant to send renewed virus anxiety among the tourist community, which triggered the cancellations, dampening the sector.

Mantis Rwanda, a collection of luxury hotels, was expecting 70 guests from South Africa and Israel to stay in all their hotels, but they all cancelled.

“All the 70 guests from South Africa and Israel who were going to be hosted in our Rwandan properties cancelled, it is not only us but all players in the hospitality industry are affected, we work closely with tour operators across the region for instance when their business is affected we are also affected” said Keza Pascale, the Cluster Sales Manager at The Mantis Collection, Rwanda.

Some Rwandan tour and travel operators had remained in touch with their clients in their source markets, routinely updating them on what is happening, and when infections subsided in the second part of the year, these guests made bookings to come to Rwanda during the festive season, only for Omicron to spoil the party.

One of these tour operators is Patrick Kwizera the proprietor of Fine Safaris Afrika. He tells Rwanda Today that he had 3 long trips scheduled for December but they have all been canceled.

“It is a very stressful situation, everyone is getting cancellations, I have lost up to Rwf 5 Million that I was going to earn from the 3 canceled trips in December alone, each had 7 to 8 days” said Kwizera.

He says some tour operators have recorded up to 10 cancellations, others less, but that new variant has dashed hopes of recovery for many players who were starting to get back on their feet.

“We are beginning to think that after every three or five months there will be a new variant, so this is crazy, the situation is opaque, we think there will be another variant after omicron, we can’t see through this fog of misfortunes to forecast for the future” said Kwizera.

Upon registering the first six Omicron variant cases, Rwanda swung into action by imposing new restrictions, which include 10pm curfew, suspension of wedding receptions and other entertainment related events.

The recent cabinet communiqué states that all arriving passengers must quarantine for 3 days at a designated hotel at their own cost.

A Covid-19 PCR test will be taken upon arrival and an additional test taken on day 3 and on day 7 at own cost.

The communiqué says tourism activities will continue in strict adherence to Covid-19 health guidelines, but the panic and anxiety around the new variant drove many tourists to cancel as opposed to taking the risks of traveling.

With the holiday season approaching, air travel among Americans was expected to triple compared to travelers in 2020, many of these including vacationers and tourists coming to Africa, but the Omicron variant is expected to greatly inhibit these travels.