The hotel announced today (January 13) that Sule Shangri-La Hotel, the iconic hotel of Yangon region, will be temporarily closed from February 1, 2021 until the end of the year due to Covid-19, the global pandemics.
In December 2020, hotel has managed other issues including downsizing staff to reduce the economic impact of the pandemics, after which the hotel’s statement described that it had decided to temporarily close the hotel and had intended to reopen it within nine months if the economy recovers.
The hotel official said every staff, except a few staff, will be allowed to take French leave with partial salary and health benefits during the closure. However, they did not say what percentage of the salary would be paid,
“We cannot tell because it is the confidentiality of the staff,” Kay Thari, communications service manager at the Sule Shangri-La Hotel, told Myanmar Now.
The hotel’s statement described guests who have booked in advance to stay in the hotel will be informed individually about the news of the hotel’s closure. The Sule Shangri-La Hotel will be closed, but the adjoining Sule Square Mall & Office and Shangri-La Residences will remain open.
Naung Naung Han, chairman of the Myanmar Tourism Association, told Myanmar Now “Hotels have staff costs and compulsory expenses. Some hotels are closed because it could not pay for these costs. The situation of other hotels is also very bad. As entrepreneurs they loss more and more, and they do not want to shut down their business, so they continue to do so.”
He said that Myanmar would firstly restart only the domestic tourism when the Covid-19 infection declines, and that international hotels, such as Sule Shangri-La, which services tourists as main customers, were likely to suspend operations.
The Sule Shangri-La Hotel, located in downtown Yangon, has 466 rooms, formerly known as the Merchants Hotel. It was renamed as Sule Shangri-La Hotel and run by the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Group in 2014.
Sule Shangri-La Hotel is a luxury hotel in which people in charge of international organization, top business organizations, international companies and affluent travelers are frequented. Accommodation fee charges at least $ 100 for per night.
While tourism is almost at a standstill because of Covid-19 pandemics, the revenue of hotel industry which related with tourism has also been hit hard by the lack of visitor.
However, foreigners who arrived and Myanmar citizens who return from abroad by air during the covid-19 pandemics, as usual, separately stay in some hotels in Yangon for a period of 14 or 21 days. So, these hotels receive appropriate income.
