The South African tourism industry says it could possibly lose between 20 and 30-billion-rand this festive season due to the high number of booking cancellations, following the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
This after several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom imposed travel bans on several countries in southern Africa including South Africa.
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa says the travel bans have a detrimental effect on the region.
“From what we have seen we believe that the loss from this festive period could go to as much as 20 to 30 billion rand. Because this is the season where we see lots of international tourists coming in and going to many different places spending those dollars and pounds and really boosting our sector so it’s a big loss a loss that we can never recover so we going to have to wait for the next season and hopefully by then the world would have come to its senses to deal with the variants as we go.”
US hopes to lift southern Africa travel ban as it continues to review policy on Omicron:
A group of ambassadors from 16 African countries are lobbying the US government to “immediately” lift its COVID-19 travel ban against eight African nations.
In a joint statement, the ambassadors from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) argue the restrictions are unfair and negatively stigmatize the African continent.
Dozens of countries imposed a travel ban on South Africa and seven other nations after the discovery of the Omicron variant.
Contralesa condemns the travel ban imposed on SA by various Western countries
Traditional leaders organisation (Contralesa) has strongly condemned the travel ban imposed on South Africa by various Western countries because of the new COVID-19 variant.
Contralesa president, Kgosi Larmeck Mokoena says these countries are undermining Africa as a continent.
Mokoena says as Contralesa, they always encourage people to get vaccinated.
“Contralesa welcome the decision by our government to keep our country under alert Level 1, any further restrictions were going to further damage our limping and fragile economy, it was also going to increase the level of unemployment. While we agree that all South Africans must go and vaccinate, however, we have mixed feelings as to whether mandatory vaccination is the way to go. Contralesa condemns a decision by some countries who impose a travel ban to Southern countries. It is clear that this continent was targeted, We call upon these countries to review and reverse their decisions in the best interest of all of us in this continent.”
Travel bans
President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the government is deeply disappointed that several countries have issued a travel ban on South Africa after the discovery of the Omicron variant.
He says that is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these
countries made at the meeting of G20 countries in Rome last month.
He adds, “They pledged at that meeting to restart international travel in a safe and orderly manner, consistent with the work of relevant international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and the OECD. The G20 Rome Declaration noted the plight of the tourism sector in developing countries, and made a commitment to support a “rapid, resilient, inclusive and sustainable recovery of the tourism sector.”
Video: President’s address:
