South African tourism on its way to recovery from Covid

The tourism industry is hungry and ready for the coming holiday season with multiple open borders and fewer lockdown restrictions in sight.

Earlier this year, Statistics South Africa released a Tourism 2020 report that indicated foreign arrivals dropped by 71% from just over 15.8million in 2019 to less than five million in 2020.

The overall number of travellers decreased by 50.7% over 15 years from nearly 24.6 million recorded in 2006 to 12.1 million travellers recorded in 2020.

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Flight Centre Travel Group’s general manager of supply, pricing and marketing, Sue Garrett, said South Africa was the preferred destination looking at the room bookings for the holiday season.

“From what we can see on the top destinations, South African travellers are booking for December 2021. South Africa is still the number one choice based on room nights booked,” Garrett said.

She said since Mauritius announced the reopening of its borders and Thailand eased entry restrictions, they have seen demand for these two popular holiday destinations spike for the festive season.

Tourism Business Council of South Africa CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said the tourism industry had been ready for the festive season for some time. “We have prepared ourselves for the festive season and the arrival of international guests and our own guests travelling their own country. We are ready,” he said.

Tshivhengwa said they have since last year put in place protocols to ensure the industry mitigates the spread of the virus.

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“We have vaccinated our staff in numbers and some places have reached a 100% vaccination rate,” Tshivhengwa said.

“We have been hungry for this business and were anticipating it. We are glad now we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Tshivhengwa said domestic travel and international travel have picked up.

“We have seen international airlines coming back to South Africa to more capacity,” he said.

Tshivhengwa said overall, the picture looked positive.

“Some places are already fully booked. I would encourage those who want to travel to book sooner than later, so that they can enjoy the festive season. Whether in a lodge or B&B, to car rentals and airlines, we are ready,” he said.

Tshivhengwa said another lockdown was always a concern when the numbers started to increase.

He said SA needs to have a smart lockdown.

“We can’t have a situation where we work so hard to revive the economy of the country just to destroy [it] with another] lockdown,” he said.

Tshivhengwa said South Africa cannot afford another lockdown or restrictions that prevent people from moving around. “The industry would be devastated if it got to that,” he said.