South Africa’s tourism ministry expects international tourists to return to the country in February 2021. In a press address, Tourism minister Kubayi Ngubane said that given the COVID19 positives cases trajectory, domestic tourism will be first to recover towards the end of 2020 followed by regional tourism in early 2021.
Ngubane says that the tourism sector may lose up to 600,000 jobs if it fails to come into operation by September 2020. Ngubane also urged tourism companies to apply for the COVID19 tourism aid scheme which provides a one-off capped grant of R50,000 per entity to subsidize expenses towards fixed costs, operational costs, and other pressure cost items.
The bulk of the 6000 applications for grant assistance received so far were from businesses providing accommodation services (2495), hospitality (1825), travel-related services (1780), and others (662).
On Monday, June 1, South Africa entered level 3 lockdown paving the way for the opening of factories, mines, and schools and allowed the sale of alcohol. 8 million workers returned to work after the lockdown restrictions were eased.
Permitted Tourism Activities
Tourism related activities allowed under level 3 lockdown include;
- Restaurants for delivery or collection of food
- Professional services, such as tourist guides, tour operators, travel agents, and tourism information officers
- Professional services, including training of nature guides and other related services while ensuring safe physical distancing
- Public and private game farms for self-drive excursions
- Hiking in compliance with existing guidelines and not in groups
- Accommodation activities except for leisure. Establishments no longer require a letter from the minister to operate.
- Hunting and gaming activities.
However, under level 3 lockdown leisure travel remains grounded which could be a blow to international tourist looking to visit South Africa. Prohibited tourism activities under level 3 lockdown include;
- Conferences, events, entertainment activities (such as festivals)
- Casinos
- Leisure travel
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