[ad_1]
Victoria Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa.
- The Western Cape government wants the Covid-19 travel “red list” removed to save the province’s tourism and hospitality industries.
- the The “red list” is a list of countries SA considers to be at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.
- The province’s MEC of Finance, David Maynier, says the “red list” is killing international tourism.
The Western Cape government wants the Covid-19 travel “red list” removed because it is killing international tourism.
“We are fighting hard to get this list removed,” said Finance MEC David Maynier during a hybrid session of the Western Cape legislature.
The “red list” was updated on Monday and revised from 60 countries to 22.
It contains the list of countries that South Africa considers most at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
Germany and Canada were added to the list, which also includes India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Countries in the rest of Africa are automatically excluded, and business travelers, diplomats, athletes and others who do not travel for pleasure are also excluded.
Maynier said the province had been cautiously emerging from a catastrophic drought when it was “ripped apart” by the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic and the shutdown.
In the Western Cape, 151,744 jobs are expected to be lost in 2020.
Of the 174,982 people employed in the tourism sector in 2019, 75,477 direct job losses are expected to occur in the sector.
Although he had been praised for his handling of the pandemic when the first wave hit the province, the closure had caused significant economic hardship, leaving many people poor and hungry.
The wine industry alone lost an estimated R300 million per week under Alert Level 5 restrictions, with 350 wine producers closing their businesses and highly frequented tourist spots.
The tourism and hospitality industries were particularly affected.
He said the red list contains key Western Cape markets and, combined with restrictions on alcohol sales, keeping it in place will make it difficult to restart the economy after the pandemic.
In 2019, Cape Town International Airport recorded more than one million international arrivals and more than four million domestic arrivals.
READ MORE | SA Business Travel Rules – Your proof is valid for 14 days and you can beg at the border
International arrivals through Cape Town International Airport decreased 10.3 percent in the first quarter of 2020, while no international arrivals were observed during the second quarter of 2020 due to border closures and travel restrictions, according to the Provincial Economic Review and Outlook report that he presented later. your adress.
“The tourism sector cannot restart because the red list kills international tourism,” Maynier said.
Maynier detailed a campaign to encourage local tourism and get South Africans to explore local sights.
He hopes that people who are only spending one night in a destination for a layover or short getaway will consider extending their stay to help the travel and hospitality industry.
Maynier noted that the Western Cape received 19.6 percent of all tourist arrivals and 22.9 percent of tourism spending in South Africa in 2019.
There were two million tourists in the province in 2019.
In his report, he noted that according to Wesgro, Germany (28.5%), United Kingdom (21.3%) and the Netherlands (7.0%) were ranked as the top three source markets for international tourism in Western regions. Cape.
Other countries among the top 10 source markets were France, the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
Domestic tourists came mainly from the Western Cape (56.4%), followed by Gauteng (11.5%), Eastern Cape (5.5%), KwaZulu-Natal (3.0%) and Northern Cape (2.4 %), according to the report.
He said the economy in the Western Cape is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.0% between 2020 and 2024, while the rest of South Africa is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 0.7% between 2020 and 2024.
