The Secretary-General of the Hotel Owners Union, Muhammad Najia, revealed in an exclusive statement to Arabic daily Al-Anbaa that the government’s recent decision to exempt some groups from institutional quarantine may not affect hotels significantly.
He said nearly 2,200 Kuwaitis have been quarantined since the decision came into effect on 21 February, in the 47 hotels participating in the “Kuwait Traveler” (Mosafer) application.
Najia said that hotels in Kuwait lost an estimated amount of about KD 172 million from their operating revenues during the past year, which is the biggest loss they have ever faced, as the tourism and travel sector was the sector most affected by the Corona crisis.
It is noteworthy that passengers coming from “high risk” countries have been obligated to quarantine for a period of 14 days. In addition, all passengers coming from the rest of the countries were required to quarantine in one of the approved Kuwait hotels for a period of 7 days at their own expense.
The Council of Ministers recently decided to exempt some categories of travelers coming to the country who are vaccinated with approved vaccines in Kuwait from applying the institutional quarantine on them. Members of diplomatic missions accredited to Kuwait, their family members and visiting official delegations have also been exempted from registering on the “Kuwait Traveler” platform
