The tourism industry is lobbying for its front-line workers to be prioritised in the second phase of the vaccination rollout to reassure travellers of their safety.
The industry which has been devastated by the lockdowns required by the Covid-19 pandemic with many hotels, restaurants and guesthouses closing down contributes about 8.6% of GDP and supports about 1.5-million jobs.
Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) chair Blacky Komani told members of parliament’s tourism committee Tuesday that tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane had indicated to the council last week that front-line tourism workers — such as those working in reception and tour guides — would be considered for vaccination in phase two.
The TBCSA has invested R12m in a vaccination programme.
In terms of the government’s vaccination roll-out plan, phase 1 covers 1.25-million healthcare workers and phase 2 will cover about 16-million people including essential workers, people in congregate settings, those over the age of 60 years and those with co-morbidities, while phase 3 will cover the rest of the adult population.
Tourism and transport group Cullinan CEO Michael Tollman said it would make a big difference if front-line workers were vaccinated to encourage foreign tourists to come to SA.
Komani also called for positive messaging to counteract the negative effect that the designation of the local variant of the Covid-19 virus as the “South African” variant had on perceptions of foreign tourists.
The spread of this strain led many countries to close their borders to travellers from SA or to impose compulsory quarantine periods on them.
The TBCSA also wants a further extension of the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme, which president Cyril Ramaphosa extended until March 15.
Komani said the industry was in the intensive-care unit and was relying on domestic travel to keep it going but this remained limited.
It was pinning its hopes on the British Lions rugby tour scheduled for July/August taking place, as that would have an enormous effect on the economy. There was still uncertainty over whether the tour, which happens every four years, would take place, he said.
TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa told MPs that the tour had the potential to bring in about 27,000 visitors and add R1.1bn in value for the sector. However, it was likely that the tour would be cancelled or postponed or take place with limited or no spectators.
“UK and Ireland fan bookings for travel are already being cancelled,” Tshivhengwa said.
He said domestic travel was still subdued as many people had lost their jobs, had their wages reduced significantly or were uncertain about their future. In any case domestic leisure tourism was not sufficient for the size of the industry and for many hotels was not worth opening their doors for.
Corporate and government travel had also fallen due to the contraction in the economy, budget constraints and the need to adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols.
The trickle of foreign tourists that was taking place was mainly work and family related travel which made less use of hotels and tourism businesses.
Collections of the tourism levy indicated that in December the industry was at 30% of the level of the prior December and January and February figures were expected to be worse.
December hotel occupancies were 37% compared to 60% in December 2019 even though rates were 15% lower and there were fewer hotels in operation.
In January hotel occupancies were at 20% compared to 57% in January 2020 despite rates being 23% lower.
“These are loss making operating levels,” Tshivhengwa said noting that hotel break-even points varied but were usually above 40%.
“Businesses with strong balance sheets rode out 2020 and are now running out of cash,” he said, adding that the short and medium term outlook was not positive.
Since the introduction of the travel bans, cancellations were being made for the second half of 2021 through to December.
Tshivhengwa appealed for a restructuring of the government’s R200bn loan guarantee scheme, which he said was not favourable to tourism businesses. Komani added said the scheme had to be designed in a way to treat tourism businesses differently especially small and medium sized enterprises.
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