Two sides of the story : What a stark contrast !
On one side : After the enormous challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with periods of lock-down, international and local restrictions on movement and a situation of emergency due to financial difficulties, the hospitality industry is recovering fast as is shown by some of our top operators .
Rogers Group revenue increased by 43% to Rs 10.7 billion (2021: Rs 7.5 billion). Its profitability amounts to Rs 1.78 billion against Rs 614 million losses in 2021. These results are attributed in particular to the successful relaunch of the operations of its ‘Hospitality’ division. The other divisions, FinTech, Logistics and Property, also posted a positive balance sheet.
The 5-star hotels of Heritage Resorts contributed significantly to this positive assessment of the Hospitality division. Profit after tax, excluding other gains and losses, amounted to Rs 406m (2021: losses of Rs 1.97 billion).
“The recovery of the tourism sector, and the resilience of the Group's operations, have contributed to this positive assessment”, underlines Philippe EspItalier-Noël, CEO of the Rogers Group. This performance enabled Rogers to distribute dividends of Rs 0.91 per share (2021:Rs 0.60 per share).
On the other side: Our economist, Dr Takesh Luckho notes that “ Beaucoup de ceux qui s’étaient inscrits comme chômeurs sont ceux qui ont perdu leur emploi dans l’hôtellerie, la restauration et les loisirs. Pendant ces deux ans, ces personnes ont dû se réinventer. Certains ont eu le Wage Assistance Scheme ou le Self-Employed Assistance Scheme. Une grande partie s’est reconvertie dans des secteurs nécessitant moins d’efforts avec plus de temps pour eux. Pendant le Covid-19, ils ont pu avoir de petites formations techniques. Beaucoup ont commencé à entreprendre, laissant derrière eux toute la pression dans l’hôtellerie.
Par ailleurs, en tant que travailleur social, je note qu’après la pandémie, ce sont les mêmes conditions de travail qui perdurent dans les hôtels. Or, ils auraient dû apprendre du Covid-19 et jouer le jeu. “
The workforce is there but it is no longer attracted by the job offerings in the hotel industry because the latter is failing to provide them with decent wages. Other sectors have better working conditions and a more decent salary. Many accepted to sacrifice themselves during the pandemic but after Covid-19, they did not notice any improvement in either salaries or conditions of work.. The conditions remained the same. Some prefer to work on cruises or start their own business....
Sen Ramsamy (Tourism Business Intelligence) observed, along the same lines, that "Les jeunes refusent de subir les mêmes traitements et conditions de travail qu’avaient endurés leurs aînés au siècle dernier. ..... la jeune génération, après des années d’études en tourisme et hôtellerie, n’est pas prête à faire de gros sacrifices pour des salaires dérisoires d’autant que certains collègues sans formation travaillent moins et gagnent beaucoup plus.
Savez-vous que de jeunes stagiaires talentueux travaillent plus dur que les employés et n’ont souvent pas droit à une seule roupie à la fin du mois ? Une exploitation honteuse au nom de la formation. Comment ces hôtels osent-ils s’attendre que ces jeunes diplômés leur fassent confiance demain pour leur carrière professionnelle ? Le bas salaire, des conditions de travail difficiles, mais aussi le favoritisme, la discrimination et le manque d’égards qui caractérisent ce secteur en général ont provoqué un sentiment de frustration chez les jeunes, d’où leur intérêt pour les hôtels à l’étranger et les croisières. “
How are our hoteliers reacting to the workers fleeing the hospitality sector ?
Their solution to the cruel lack of personnel decried in the sector is the recruitment of foreign labour . But it was these very hoteliers who were - when it suited them- boasting about “ ce cachet mauricien so appreciated by the tourists- “l’authenticité de l’accueil mauricien”.. .....Elsewhere, as shown in the recent article of “The economist” titled “Why workers are fleeing the hospitality sector”, firms in the sector have scrambled to respond to the quit rate in leisure and hospitality which has jumped from 1% to 6.4%. Many food and accommodation businesses have raised wages—by an average of 8.1% …. the highest increase on record.
Here when the going gets tough, they prefer to sacrifice our vaunted accueil mauricien ! They choose the easy way out- recourse to cheap foreign labour et "our hospitalité mauricien fout le camp!"
“Définitivement, en tant que touriste, j’aimerais voir le Mauricien et non des étrangers. On ne se sentirait pas à Maurice. On perdrait de notre authenticité. On ne vient pas à Maurice pour voir des Bangladais ou des Philippins. On deviendrait Dubaï ! “ comments Marie Malie of CDT.
And Dr Luckho rightly points out that “Je trouve ainsi que les hôtels qui ont bénéficié de l’argent du gouvernement, de la Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) pendant la pandémie auraient dû jouer le jeu en revalorisant le travail de tous ces employés. Ainsi, ce faisant, ils auraient pu retrouver toutes ces personnes. Le problème, c’est que nous vendons ce qu’on appelle l’accueil des Mauriciens. Maurice est une destination de luxe et l’hospitalité mauricienne est la valeur ajoutée. Si on recherche de la main-d’œuvre étrangère, cela veut dire qu’il y a quelque chose qui ne marche pas. “
The time off during lockdowns gave employees an opportunity to reflect on their relationship with fragile and meagerly paid work . The work in restaurants and hotels have remained physically taxing, poorly paid and unpredictable and it is thus not surprising that few of our young people are prepared to toil in kitchens or sweep hotel corridors......
What is even more surprising is that our hoteliers are still stuck in the 1980s in terms of the treatment of employees -there's an urgent need to « revaloriser le travail de leurs employés» et “améliorer les conditions de travail “.
A hospitality sector that's unwilling to adapt , to reform !
Perhaps our pro-bono adviser to the tourism sector, A.M, could be of some help here- bolder this time in scripting game changing innovating policies than his earlier spell of inconsequential reforms - the few touches to the tax rates and some improvements to the investment climate framework backed by a high dose of the depreciation of the rupee(18%). It was plainly a case of missed opportunities and lack of broad-based daring reforms . Till today we continue to bear the heavy legacy of the TINAwallahs who failed to deliver and squandered the momentous opportunity to reform and transform the economy - some economists have referred to this period as the lost decades . We avoided making hard choices to achieve the desired above-average sustainable and more inclusive growth rates and thus secure our collective future.
I still have my doubts about the IMF agent; even at pro-bono rate, it may turn out to be quite costly ! Poor Steve !
