The Democratic Alliance (DA) remains hopeful that judgement on a challenge to the beach ban will be handed down in the next few days.
The party challenged the decision to close Garden Route beaches in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the closure as one of the intensified measures to address the spread of COVID-19.
The DA argues the negative effects to the economy caused by closing beaches will be far greater than the positive effects on the pandemic.
Theresa Emerick of the online accommodation booking system provider NightsBridge, which conducted the survey, said: “We sent a survey to 629 of our clients in the Garden Route area and asked if they’ve had any cancellation or postponements.”
She said the losses were alarming for these businesses who relied on tourism during busy periods like the festive season for an economic boost.
“About 2.5% of those clients lost all their bookings. What was really disturbing was that more than a third of those clients lost more than half of their bookings and we looked at forward bookings going into January and February as well, so the entire season is impacted.”
Emerick said the beach closures were the final nail in the coffin.
“The cancellations started coming in at the beginning of December when there were indications that there were hotspots and that the government was concerned about the hotspots.”
She said Knysna, Mossel Bay, and Sedgefield were among the hardest-hit areas.
At the same time in the Eastern Cape, the Kouga Municipality’s also unhappy with the decision to shut beaches during the holidays and filed an urgent court application on Monday wanting the decision to be overturned.
-EWN
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