Our facilities still open for business despite rumoured booking – Imo hoteliers

The Imo State Hoteliers Association has said that their facilities are open for prospective customers, contrary to the rumour that they had all been booked and paid for.

The association’s Chairman, Chima Chukwunyere, said this while addressing newsmen in Owerri on Monday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that a leaked memo, dated October 25, 2023, purportedly signed by the Imo State Commissioner for Tourism, Jerry Egemba, has been trending in the media and generating diverse public reactions.

The memo requested hotel owners in Owerri, the state capital, to make their facilities available for rent by the State Government from November 4 to November 11, the date of the off-cycle governorship election in the state.

Chukwunyere described the memo as “debilitating to the welfare of the hotel business in Imo”.

According to him, customers are no longer patronising hotels in the state since November 4, 2023 out of the assumption that they had all been rented out and paid for.

He said: “Sometime last week, there was a letter from the State Government to Directors and General Managers of hotels in the state requesting for reservation of all hotel rooms of all categories from November 4 to November 12.

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“Captains of the hotel industry gladly received the information because for hotels to have full occupancy for such a number of days means a miracle from God, which has never happened before and hotels have never received 60 percent occupancy for a long time.

“But nothing has happened since then and customers are growing increasingly apprehensive about patronising us.

“We wish to state that all hotels operating in Imo are open for business.

“We, therefore, call on our customers to continue to patronise the industry.”

Chukwunyere further called on the State Government to cushion the effect of the financial loss on the part of hoteliers brought about by the memo by injecting funds into the tourism industry and also giving them tax rebate.