COVID-19: SON to issue safety standards for tourism sector resumption
By Preparatory to post-COVID-19 resumption of Nigeria’s tourism sector, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) will deploy a well-developed standards that would help prevent the spread of COVID 19 in the sector.
This development was made known during a meeting of the National Mirror Committee on Tourism, a stakeholders committee set up by SON, aimed at finding a globally acceptable health and safety standards ground to revive the sector from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The draft standards of Health and Safety Measures for tourism and Hospitality Establishments post COVID 19 resumption which stakeholders are currently finetuning the process with SON’s guidance would also help the sector to rebound in full force when the lockdown is eased for the sector to commence operations.
The Chairperson of the Committee and the Director General of the National Institute for Hotels and Tourism, Chika Balogun, informed in a statement on Tuesday that difficult period such as this, stakeholders in the tourism sector need to put all hands on deck to see that they pull out of the challenges put forth by the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said Nigeria is not the only Country affected but Global effect and that is why SON through the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has deployed Standards for Organisations to keep the Virus at bay by minimizing the spread.
Balogun further stated that the draft Standards on Health and Safety Measures for Tourism & Hospitality Establishments – Post pandemic (Covid-19) Resumption guidelines will help the Tourism sector pick up eventually when the lockdown is being eased off by the Government.
Also, in a short presentation at the meeting titled “Health and safety measures for Tourism and Hospitality establishments for Post Covid 19-Pandemic, Chidinma Ewuzie the Technical Secretary to the National Mirror Committee gave the reasons for the guidelines on the Reasons for this is to improve on the safety of the Employers and workers and prevention of a re-occurrence of the pandemic, and to boost confidence of Guests and Employers & Employees and to establish a monitoring control to limit the spread of a pandemic.
It would be noted that the draft Standards on Health and Safety Measures for Tourism and Hospitality Establishments – Post Pandemic (Covid -19) Resumption standards specified requirements for Tourism and Hospitality establishments to enable them comply with the guidelines for resumption and protection of lives and sustain the business.
The document applies to Tourism Sector establishments such as Hotels, Restaurants, Fast Foods, Conferences/meetings/Event centers, Tour Operatives/Travel Agents/Tourist Information Centers, Airlines, Beaches amongst others.