The tourism sector received some welcome news this week after the UK removed SA from its travel red list and the government opted not to tighten Covid restrictions in the run up to the lucrative festive season.
But it remains to be seen whether the news will prompt many disappointed international travellers to renew their bookings or change alternative plans made after the European ban was announced last month.
The UK, SA’s biggest source of tourism revenue, and other European countries imposed bans on travel to the country shortly after the detection of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, plunging the hospitality and leisure sectors back into crisis just as they were looking to claw their way out of the devastation of three waves of Covid. .
Rosemary Anderson, national chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa), said the removal of SA from the red list and the government’s decision not to impose further restrictions, would allow the sector “to maximise the festive season”.
“Not only will the removal of the UK red listing be the foundation on which we can rebuild, we are [also] relieved that additional restrictions have not been imposed locally, which would have hampered domestic travel during what is one of our peak travel periods,” Anderson added.
Listed hotel companies, though, have mixed feelings on whether international travellers who had cancelled bookings in the wake of the red listing will change their minds, though they are optimistic about a strong recovery in 2022.
Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, COO of the City Lodge Hotel Group, said it was unlikely that international tourists would renew their bookings for this month because they were likely to have made alternative travel plans.
“We are optimistic about a strong comeback of international inbound travel next year, from both a business and leisure point of view. The lifting of the travel bans is a great development,” she said
Graham Wood, Sun International Group COO for hospitality,, expects last-minute demand for the remainder of this month and into the first quarter of 2022, “although we will still have a slow international leisure season”.
The hotel and casino group’s Table Bay Hotel is a favourite with Britons, though it and other hotel operators looking to offset lower international arrivals with local travellers.
Sangweni-Siddo said domestic travellers who planned international trips had redirected their holiday plans and “are booking with us, particularly in the Western Cape”.
We are optimistic about a strong comeback of international inbound travel next year
— Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, COO of the City Lodge Hotel Group
Among City Lodge’s brands are the Fairview Hotel, Courtyard and City Lodge hotels that mostly target locals.
Most of Sun International’s bookings for the festive season are from domestic travellers, “so we are still preparing for a busy season”, said Wood.
The local leisure and tourism industry has lost billions of rand to a series of travel bans since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 and almost 500,000 people in the sectors have lost jobs.
The UK is the largest overseas market for SA tourism with about 450,000 British passport-holders visiting in a typical year. Normally, the industry contributes R265bn to the fiscus, according to government statistics, and provides 1.5-million direct and indirect jobs.
At the time of the travels bans in November, Fedhasa said that SA’s tourism and hospitality sector had lost about R1bn in cancelled bookings between December and March.
Rico Basson, MD of wine industry body Vinpro, said the sector, which relies heavily on tourism, especially during the summer months, welcomed the latest news from the government and the UK. “It is evident from this that government is heeding the industry’s ongoing call for risk- and fact-based decision-making regarding liquor trade restrictions,” he said.
Though the UK has reopened its borders to SA, many vintners had still lost a large part of their international market.
“Domestic tourism is an important lifeline for these businesses, and we are therefore relieved that they can still trade at this time, with all the necessary safety measures in place.”
Wood said that besides jobs, the biggest issue for the industry was a loss of confidence as a result of the latest ban. “It will also influence holiday plans in 2022 due to the risk of similar future travel bans,” he said.
The prospects for 2022 would depend on the return of conferencing, and corporate and eventing demand. “We are still expecting an uncertain 2022 for the leisure sector,” Wood said.
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