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.
"This is all we had," said Amy Diouf, 50, dusting the unsold
wares in the courtyard of her reed-thatched home.
Even if international visitors are allowed to return soon,
the two-month hiatus means tourist numbers this year will be far
below the 1.7 million who holidayed in Senegal in 2019.
Some locals, like 32-year-old guide Pierre Diouf, hope they
can make up the shortfall by attracting more domestic visitors
whenever a ban on travel between regions is lifted.
He used to organise camping and bird-watching trips through
the Unesco-listed waterways, but now earns a quarter of what he
did, catching fish from his painted boat "The Saloum
Adventurers".
"Even though it's tough, we keep smiling," he said in his
village of Dangane, where every restaurant on the sun-baked
waterfront stood empty.