Tourism must get out of nosedive

It certainly comes as no surprise that the tourism industry in South Africa has been decimated by the lockdown as a result of Covid-19. According to Moneyweb, three surveys, which looked at the impact the pandemic has had on tourism and the hospitality sectors under the lockdown regulations, revealed concerning results.

Among 1 610 respondents, 99% of the firms said they had been negatively affected as 58% were unable to service their debts and 54% could not cover their fixed costs in March. When it came to employees, 50% had reduced staff wages, 32% had placed workers on a leave of absence and 11% had made their workers redundant.

The surveys were released by the International Finance Corporation in collaboration with the department of tourism and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.

Lee Zama, chief executive of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa, revealed the worst when she said the effect on the sector was “a total devastation”.

She added: “Our members have lost a lot of money, there are very few small businesses that would have a buffer for four or five months without any income”.

Zama revealed “there’s an unfortunate understanding that the tourism industry is the one that brought the virus and is responsible for distributing it around SA”.

Worse still, it doesn’t look as though restrictions on the tourism industry will be lifted any time soon, with government’s five-level risk framework listing a return to activities in the tourism and hospitality sector only under alert Levels 2 and 1, at best.

It has felt that signs of recovery will take at least two years – and that’s if business travel and accommodation is allowed next month, according to Zama.

That doesn’t look likely. Considering the large contribution hospitality and tourism contributes to the gross domestic product each year, SA needs tourism to flourish again. And the sooner, the better.