Lowveld tourism suffers as other countries shut SA out

From SANParks to lodges to safari operators and more, the recent decision by the UK to place South Africa back on its red list for travel has severely impacted all.

Taking a look specifically at the Lowveld’s market, the COO of KLCBT, Linda Grimbeek, said it was experiencing cancellations by the hundreds of thousands of rands.

“Our safari industry, which only just started getting a few bookings, is sitting with 100% cancellations.”

Grimbeek said KLCBT understands the immense political pressure under which foreign leaders make their decisions in order to protect their own countries’ citizens and economies.

“There is no roadmap for this, thus you can expect them to act rash rather than slow.”

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She said the immediate statistics do indicate, however, that they probably overreacted, so they are expecting a turnaround of the restrictions.

“This, unfortunately, will not bring back the bookings for December. Clients book ahead of time and already have different plans for the festive season. “We have sorely missed out on a much-needed tourism season. We will have to depend on local tourism again.”

She said that even if the current restrictions are lifted, there will only be a return of international travellers in February or March. A statement issued on behalf of various role players in the hospitality and tourism industries agrees with the KLCBT.

It described the current situation that the country is facing as the “worst nightmare come true” for these industries, “which desperately need a successful holiday season to begin its recovery from previous rounds of restrictions and to rebuild reserves to survive the off-season of 2022”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his most recent family meeting with South Africans, said these recent restrictions were unjustified and unfairly discriminate against the country and its neighbours.

“Countries that have imposed travel restrictions on our country and some of our Southern African sister countries include the United Kingdom, United States, European Union members, Canada, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Seychelles, Brazil and Guatemala, among others.

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“The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic.” The CEO of the South African Liquor Brand Owners Association (Salba), Kurt Moore, said Salba shares the position of the SA government that international travel restrictions applied to the region are unjustified.

“We appeal to our government to not itself impose any unjustified restrictions on the domestic economy.”

Judging by the president’s speech, no “unjustified restrictions” are expected just yet. That may change at a moment’s notice, though, said Grimbeek, who reminded that we should not think that this new Omicron variant is the equivalent to the fourth wave expected in December.

“Our status of lockdown is reviewed weekly and this uncertainty makes locals hesitant to book their travels. That and the fuel price! “Uncertainty is what is doing the industry the most damage.”