The tourism industry lost an estimated R1bn at the weekend as the UK, US and some European countries enacted travel bans in response to SA’s transparency about identifying cases due to the new Omicron variant.
Variants drove the previous two Covid-19 waves, but it is unknown if the Omicron variant is more contagious or severe, and if it will outsmart vaccines.
The new variant’s mutations worried some SA scientists, who held a media conference to announce their discovery to the world on Thursday. It led to widespread travel bans and the rand plummeting, as well as banking and hotel stocks. The variant has been identified in Botswana, Hong Kong, the UK and Belgium.
Britain announced on Thursday evening it is banning flights and travellers from SA, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Many countries followed suit, including Germany, Singapore, Israel, the Netherlands, France and US.
However, British Airways will resume flights to SA on Tuesday.
The bans and quarantine rules have devastated the travel industry, which previously contributed 3% of SA’s GDP and employed hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers.
Hospitality businesses that were expecting a December reprieve are now facing ruin after having survived 20 months of almost no travel and little financial support from the government.
Travel bodies Satsa and the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) estimated the extent of the losses and cancellations at the weekend at R1bn after a snap survey of a few hundred members, from hotels to tour guides.
Fedhasa chair Rosemary Anderson said if the bans remained in place, the respondents expect to lose 78% of their previously expected business income for the period December to March, which would represent a R26bn hit to the tourism sector.
Satsa, representing more than 1,300 tourism businesses, said SA is being punished for its transparency and advanced genomic sequencing. It spent months lobbying to remove SA off the UK’s red list, which was enacted in January and lifted in October.
“The impact of these ill-advised travel bans is catastrophic for an industry that has already been battling to survive for the past 20 months,” said CEO David Frost, adding: “We can only hope that science will prevail and that countries will reverse the travel bans shortly.”
He pointed out that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had advised that travel bans are an ineffective measure to deal with the spread of Covid-19. “What has happened in effect is that the world has shot the messenger for doing its job well.”
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Nigel Ward said the ban would lead smaller businesses in KwaZulu-Natal to close. Durban Tourism urged the government to avoid enacting domestic travel bans. “We believe this travel ban is premature and will further leave our country’s tourism and hospitality sector battered and bruised. Small and medium enterprises [are] in severe cash flow distress, with many of our member businesses practically in ICU.”
Data intelligence company Mabrian said there are 334,408 air seats from European destinations, including Switzerland and France, into SA over the next three months, with the UK representing about 40%.
Carlos Cendra, director of marketing & sales at Mabrian, said: “That’s a potentially very big impact on the tourism recovery of SA, not least as visitors from such long-haul markets often stay for longer periods and spend more overall [than local travellers].”
The industry urged the government at a meeting with tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Friday not to further weaken it with interprovincial travel bans.
“Today’s engagement was the first of many we will be holding as a public-private tourism sector war room to deal with crises that hinder the extent that tourism can contribute to SA’s economy,” said Sisulu.
The department of international relations said SA has started engaging with countries about removing restrictions. “While we respect the right of all countries to take the necessary precautionary measures to protect their citizens, we need to remember that this pandemic requires collaboration and sharing of expertise,” minister Naledi Pandor said.
Fedhasa’s Anderson called on South Africans to be vaccinated, with only 35% of all adults fully vaccinated. “To be locked down on a semiregular basis and banned for international travel because of our advanced genomic sequencing capability and low vaccination rates cannot continue,” she said.
Satsa, with the support of local scientists, lobbied the UK from May to have SA removed from the red list and spent months pointing out the lack of scientific basis for the first ban.
Frost called on President Cyril Ramaphosa and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to meet and find out what criteria SA must meet to be removed from the list again to avoid the country remaining stuck for months in what he called a political decision. The UK currently has a much higher daily Covid-19 infection rate than SA.
With Mary Papayya
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