Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says that her department is busy setting up bilateral meetings with ambassadors of countries that have flagged South Africa over the 501Y.V2 variant of Covid-19.<\/p>\n
Briefing parliament on Tuesday (9 March), the minister said that the country’s association with the 501Y.V2 variant of Covid-19 could cause damage to tourism.<\/p>\n
In addition to key target markets such as the US and UK,\u00a0South Africa has also been flagged as a risk by a number of other European countries including Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The variant was first discovered and reported by scientists in South Africa, however it has also been found to be spreading in more than 48 other countries.<\/p>\n
By calling it the \u201cSouth African variant\u201d, a global impression has been given that South Africa is the source of the spread – when this is not the case.<\/p>\n
In response, MPs urged Kubayi-Ngubane to make the international tourist market aware that it is not only in South Africa where there is a new variant, as there were new variants found in other countries as well.<\/p>\n
As there were signs of recovery in tourism due to the lowering of the alert levels, parliament also advised South African Tourism to develop a communications and marketing strategy to reinvigorate domestic tourism in villages, townships and small dorpies.<\/p>\n
It added that special tourist packages should be developed to inspire and motivate South Africans to travel within the country to keep the industry afloat.<\/p>\n
Data published in the briefing shows that South Africa’s tourism industry is facing an uphill battle as international tourist arrivals declined by 70% in 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic,<\/p>\n
Most experts in the industry do not foresee a return to pre-pandemic levels happening before 2023.<\/p>\n
The United Nations World Travel Organisation\u2019s extended scenarios for 2021-2024 indicate that it could take between two-and-a-half and four years for international tourism to return to 2019 levels.<\/p>\n