Senegalese tourism hot spot lacks visitors
Lionel Lopez grimaces as he looks at the stagnant green water in the bottom of the pool at his hotel in Senegal's Saloum Delta. He drained it after the global pandemic closed borders, bringing West Africa's tourism industry to a standstill in mid-March.
The Sine-Saloum region has escaped the worst of the epidemic that has so far infected more than 3,100 across the country. But stringent travel restrictions have hurt those who live off what they earn through hospitality, selling handicrafts, or ferrying visitors through the delta's bird-rich mangrove forests.
"It makes you want to cry a little bit," Lopez said, surveying the deserted complex of the hotel he runs, Les Cordons Bleus.
He is able to keep paying his 15 employees a reduced wage thanks to an emergency loan from the government to prop up an industry that accounted for around four percent of GDP in 2017. But others are not so lucky.
Across the silent lagoon, on Mar Lodj island, women who once earned up to $17 (about R300) per day selling woven baskets and carved souvenirs are struggling to support their families.
