Many in the industry have raised concerns about South Africa potentially losing out market share on the upcoming high season if it doesn’t open up for inbound by September.
This could mean the country risks losing its place as a top sub-Saharan destination – especially with countries such as Tanzania already opening up their borders to the international market.
Travel News’s sister publication, Tourism Update, asked readers in a recent poll if they thought South Africa’s decision to keep its borders closed risked it losing its place as a hub for tourism on the continent; 56% of those who voted said they believed the country needed to open its borders as soon as possible for the international market.
Tourism Update reader and travel destination specialist, Alan Roxton Wiggill, commented on an article highlighting that East Africa was opening up, saying: “So Tanzania seems to feel the risk of economic and political collapse is less than the fear of some deaths by COVID-19? Makes our government’s promises and commitments to tourism seem pretty hollow.”
Owner of Thaba Tsweni Lodge and Safaris in Mpumalanga, Wendel Hough, said South Africa was still lagging behind reopening its travel and tourism sector. “There are many industries such as retail and mining, which have greater social risk to the coronavirus than most small to medium establishments, especially self-catering.
“Tourism should already be open and it is imperative to have cross-provincial travel allowed in level 3 for self-drive tourism as this does not impose a bigger risk to the spread of the virus than going into a retail outlet.”
Ceo of Tourvest Destination Management, Martin Wiest, believes South Africa has already lost its positon as an African hub but needs to maintain its Southern African Development Community (SADC) hub status.
“Countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, in conjunction with the Middle East carriers, are simply in a better place to dominate that function,” he said. “It is critical that we retain the connector role for the SADC region to create economies of scale for inbound leisure to this region.”
Martin said a cautious but logical approach would always allow for a better restart phase. “The vast majority of the lack of inbound tourism is also currently source-market driven and the SA government’s actions do not directly influence this,” he said.
“Having said that, once travel from our key source markets is allowed again there will be a global scramble for market-share and if we remain hyper cautious at that point, we will lose market-share to well-managed but less cautious countries. It’s a very fine balance.”
Balancing act
Ceo of Classic Portfolios, Suzanne Bayly-Coupe, agrees with Martin that it’s a balancing act for the government. “Yes, we may be hit harder initially but that isn’t to say that we should be as radical as somewhere like Tanzania and open our borders too soon,” she said. “If, however, the borders are kept closed for a lengthy period, what we stand to lose is drastic and may cause more harm than good.”
Suzanne explained that keeping borders closed for any longer could mean losing strategic positions. “Currently, Johannesburg is used as one of the main transit hubs to neighbouring countries and Delta is considering now flying straight to Cape Town from the US. We may lose this strategic position if we remain closed.”
When asked if South Africa should open its borders for regional travel or intra-Africa travel, Martin said opening borders to certain parts of the world wasn’t effective.
“I don’t see a material difference between domestic, regional and international travel in terms of risk,” he explained. “I would suggest we follow European examples who used domestic leisure travel as a training ground for international travel that followed with about a three-week delay.”
