Virus, riots hamper tourism recovery in South Africa
CAPE TOWN: Graced with rolling vineyards, bountiful big game, the iconic Table Mountain, endless sandy beaches and vast cultural riches, South Africa would have expected to cash in on a post-virus travel boom.
But a week of violent rioting and looting risks deterring foreign visitors and hammering hopes of recovery, the industry says, compounding losses caused by the country’s mounting coronavirus toll.
Tracey Hellerle of the Umzolozolo lodge near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal province, which was the epicentre of the disorder, said every visitor booked to stay during the week of the riots had cancelled.
Before Covid-19, visitors from across the world — and during the pandemic, from across the country — would sit on poolside sun loungers overlooking the undulating plains of the Nambiti game reserve, hoping to catch a glimpse of Big Five game animals.
“We’d just started to get back into the swing of things,” Hellerle said, noting that a downturn in bookings because of the pandemic had already led to layoffs.
“People were just too scared to travel (and) because of the riots, they closed the N3 (motorway), which had become like a war zone and people were just too terrified to get in their vehicles to travel.”
Since the looting and riots erupted on July 9, 212 people have died, of whom 180 lost their lives in KwaZulu-Natal. Tourism is a mainstay of South Africa’s economy, which was stumbling even before Covid-19 and the riots.
The industry contributed US$24.6 billion to the economy in 2019 — seven per cent of gross domestic product — and employed 759,900 people, according to official statistics.
In Clarens, an idyllic tourist town nestled at the foot of the Maluti mountains that is a popular weekend retreat five hours by car inland from Durban, guesthouse owner Heinrich Pelser fears foreign tourists could be deterred by the unrest.
Since the unrest began, Pelser’s Stonehaven cottages had hosted drivers heading away from riothit Durban, as well as one man on his way to the city to take food to his mother, he said.
Under coronavirus restrictions, alcohol sales are banned nationwide — a particular blow for Clarens, which is known for its microbreweries, and for the Western Cape province, which is renowned for its wineries, as well as being the end point of the prestigious Blue Train.
“It’s not worth coming here if you can’t sample the cheese, the wine, the beers,” said Pelser.
In Cape Town, tourist-oriented businesses said the lack of visiting liners had hurt them.
“It’s been very slow. Before we had a lot of cruise passengers. We are just waiting to see if this vaccine means they can come back,” said the manager of a souvenir store in the city’s V&A Waterfront.
“Now we don’t want (the violence) to come here,” she said.