Lagos hotels lose N8bn over Ebola outbreak 

Several months after Nigeria curtailed the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, the hospitality industry is still counting its loses – now put at over N8 billion.
 
State Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Relations, Oladisun Holloway, said this yesterday at the 2015 Ministerial Press Briefing, where activities in the tourism sector in the last one year were reviewed.
 
Meanwhile, the state government, through the Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board, has arrested 162 pirates and prosecuted 97 in the last one year. Holloway noted that the hospitality business was badly hit during the outbreak of the Ebola outbreak, much more than the public is aware of.
 
According to him, “the impact of Ebola on hotel patronage was significant. The patronage fell from 76 per cent to 35 per cent for a period of four months that the disease lasted. It really affected the turnover of the hotels. They lost about N8 billion within this period. The hotels were losing about N2 billion per months. This was only applicable to big hotels. We did not factor in what smaller hotels lost.”
  
The hotel industry in the state makes an annual turnover of N46 billion. Ebola outbreak and attendant drop in patronage was therefore a huge setback, Holloway said, as he canvassed for improved infrastructural development for the tourism sector.

Executive Secretary, Lagos State Video and Censors Board, Dele Balogun, vowed that the state government would make more arrest and prosecute more pirates, who specialised in‎ the stealing of intellectual property.
 
Balogun added that the state would soon unveil film city‎ in view of the global growing popularity and unlimited potential of Nigerian movie industry, adding that the proposal was being evaluated.