The tourism sector has welcomed the government’s decision to reopen international travel but called for the state not to proceed with its banning of travellers from countries troubled by Covid-19.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this week that international travel will be allowed from October 1, after the country has moved to level 1 of the lockdown.
However, those coming into the country must present negative Covid-19 test results no older than 72 hours. Ramaphosa said that the government will release a list of countries SA will not be receiving visitors from due to the pandemic.
Tourism Business Council of SA’s Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said the sector has been waiting for the return of international travel for a while.
“That is what we’ve been asking for. It makes a difference. The government’s decision is correct, although we believe it is a month late,” Tshivhengwa said.
But he later raised concerns about the government’s decision to develop a list from which tourists will not be allowed into the country, arguing that it would be difficult to change perceptions in these countries when things finally normalise.
“We know that we have countries that have a high infection rate. If we are banning them on the basis of infections without factoring in the number of people that visit us from that particular country, our system may be flawed … It is also a PR nightmare. Once you ban a country, it sticks in their minds,” Tshivhengwa said.
SA tourism gets a lot of visitors from the US and Europe, which are battling Covid-19 infections.
The tourism sector has been one of industries that has been hit hard by the pandemic. For most of the lockdown, which started at the end of March, tourism businesses have been closed, placing jobs at risk. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council in 2018, the industry contributed 2.8% to the country’s GDP. It employs about 1.5m people.
Tshivhengwa said it is difficult to project how the sector will perform under lockdown regulations.
“At the moment we are working on a hypothesis. Now that the borders are open we’ve got to go and test the market to see if there is demand. In the next few months we will be able to tell whether there is demand or not … It is going to be survival mode for the next probably two years.”
-Sowetan
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