Tourism’s double blow
FACTORS: COVID, UNREST RESULT IN MASSIVE DROP IN NUMBERS
Usually lucrative industry is a mainstay of South Africa’s fragile economy.
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, compounded losses caused by the Covid.
Tracey Hellerle of the Umzolozolo lodge near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal said every visitor booked to stay during the week of the riots had cancelled.
Before Covid, visitors from across the world would sit on poolside sun loungers overlooking the undulating plains of the Nambiti game reserve, hoping to catch a glimpse of the big five.
“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. People were just too terrified to get in their vehicles to travel.”
Tourism is a mainstay of SA’s economy, which was stumbling even before Covid and the riots.
The industry contributed R355 billion to the economy in 2019 – seven percent of GDP – and employed 759 900 people, according to official statistics.
In the idyllic tourist town of Clarens, guesthouse owner Heinrich Pelser fears foreign tourists could be deterred by the unrest.
“If you look at Canadians and Americans, I don’t think they will come soon,” he said.
Since the unrest began, Pelser’s Stonehaven cottages have hosted drivers heading away from riot-hit Durban, as well as one man on his way to the city to take food to his mother, he said.
“It’s not worth coming here if you can’t sample the cheese, the wine, the beers,” said Pelser, who employs six full-time staff.
In Cape Town, tourist-oriented businesses say the lack of visiting liners has hurt them.
“It’s been slow. Before we had a lot of cruise passengers. We are waiting to see if this vaccine means they can come back,” said Simone, the manager of the Wild Thing Africa souvenir store in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. –