In a bid to provide relief to the country’s battered tourism and hospitality industry, the government has eased some of the restrictions that hammered parts of a sector that was one of the few bright spots, growing and creating jobs, before the outbreak of Covid-19.
According to new regulations, people will now be allowed to book hotel accommodation for leisure in their own provinces, while restaurants can stay open later after the curfew imposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier in July was moved to start an hour later than was first announced.
When the country moved to level 3 lockdown in June, the industry was largely left out. Accommodation and travel were allowed only for business trips.
The tourism and hospitality sector has been one of those hit hardest by Covid-19, leading to an estimated loss of more than R50bn so far, as international and domestic borders were closed in March.
Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane’s latest announcement is not likely to be enough to end the crisis in the sector, which is facing the loss of more than 400,000 jobs and more than R80bn in foreign receipts.
When the country moved to level 3 of the risk-adjusted lockdown strategy in June, some reprieve was given with the opening of restaurants and accommodation for business travel, among other things.
Kubayi-Ngubane said on Thursday that the cabinet agreed to extend the 9pm curfew to 10pm to allow for "uninterrupted dinner service at restaurants". She said this would go a long way in increasing the sector’s revenue. Liquor sales, however, remained prohibited.
Wendy Alberts, CEO of the Restaurant Association of SA, said the industry had been "decimated", and she called on the government to listen to stakeholders who wanted to contribute "viable solutions" to end businesses closures.
"The lines of communication must be opened so that we can save as many jobs and businesses as possible," said Alberts.
The sector needed the liquor ban to be lifted to prevent enterprises from going out of business, she said.
The minister said that when the new regulations had been gazetted, people would be allowed to travel for leisure within the provinces where they lived, but travelling between provinces would still be banned.
The relaxing of restrictions included allowing tour operators to conduct guided tours in open safari vehicles with strict adherence to social-distancing and "maximum ventilation" rules. The tourism department had set aside R200m — a drop in the ocean for a sector that accounted for more than 8% of GDP in 2018 — in Covid-19 relief funding for businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.
Kubayi-Ngubane said that of the 7,284 valid applications for assistance, the department had only enough resources to assist 4,000 businesses. Applications from enterprises with annual turnover of R5m and more had been turned down, as were applications from nontourism enterprises.
"The relief fund doesn’t go a long way, but when businesses are running they become more sustainable," she said.
The allocation of funds had been made in line with government policies, and ensured that there was an equitable share of the resources across all regions, including rural areas and small towns.
Kubayi-Ngubane said her department has agreed to formalise its working relationship with the tourism and hospitality sector by forming a task team that brought together "a broad spectrum of private-sector players and officials from the department to work towards reopening the sector and resolving other sector challenges".
With regard to the R30m relief package for freelance tourist guides that she announced last month, Kubayi-Ngubane said that the department had received 9,380 applications.
The relief was for two to three months.
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