{"id":544154,"date":"2021-12-06T08:40:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T06:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=544154"},"modified":"2021-12-06T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T07:00:12","slug":"new-rules-for-travel-weddings-and-accomodation-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/544154\/new-rules-for-travel-weddings-and-accomodation-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New rules for travel, weddings, and accommodation in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Tourism has published an updated set of norms and standards to ensure the tourism sector&#8217;s safe operation during the country&#8217;s state of disaster.<\/p>\n<p>The document&#8217;s objective is to introduce minimum universal practices that the sector will follow to prevent the spread of the Covid-19. The policy assumes that it will be some time before the pandemic subsides and aims to assure local and international travellers that South Africa&#8217;s tourism industry is sufficiently equipped to deal with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The guideline applies to several sectors, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tourism establishments;<\/li>\n<li>Short-term rentals;<\/li>\n<li>Events;<\/li>\n<li>Weddings;<\/li>\n<li>Meetings;<\/li>\n<li>Exhibitions; and<\/li>\n<li>Accommodations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While each sector has different requirements, the document indicates that the expectations are essentially the same \u2013 focusing on staff preparedness and providing a safe experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Staff and hosts preparedness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A person in charge of accommodation must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Train the host and staff on the health and safety protocols, in line with the latest local and international health guidelines;<\/li>\n<li>Outline to staff and the host cleaning, infection control and disinfection processes on safety measures, including frequent sanitising and hand washing;<\/li>\n<li>Encourage the use of electronic payment methods on check-in and check-out, where possible; and<\/li>\n<li>Develop an action plan outlining the process of handling Covid-19 cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Safe experience\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A person in charge must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adopt enhanced frequent cleaning, sanitisation and disinfecting measures;<\/li>\n<li>Communicate health and safety protocols to guests before arrival;<\/li>\n<li>Communicate rules on physical distancing, wearing of face masks and sanitising; and<\/li>\n<li>Communicate to guests the completion of the health declaration forms and relevant contact information in advance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Building confidence\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A person in charge of the tourism establishment must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure clear and straightforward communication with customers on safety and hygiene protocols both digitally and physically;<\/li>\n<li>Implement clear signage throughout the establishment to inform guests of cleaning protocols and physical distancing;<\/li>\n<li>Provide guidelines in line with the advice of health authorities to guests, which include wearing face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The sector-specific rules around weddings, accommodation, events, casinos, and curio shops are explored in more detail in the document below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Tourism.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/544116\/south-african-hospital-admissions-doubling-every-day-as-omicron-cases-soar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa hospital admissions doubling every day as Omicron cases soar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Tourism has published an updated set of norms and standards aimed at ensuring the safe operation of the tourism sector during the country&#8217;s state of disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":325583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-544154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544154"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544204,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544154\/revisions\/544204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}