First imposed on 15 March 2020, the National State of Disaster gives the government the flexibility to institute swift measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID, such as restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings, the sale of alcohol and international travel.

“The hospitality sector has largely borne the brunt of changing lockdown regulations in terms of business closures and job losses, despite putting in place stringent health and hygiene protocols. It is our view, based on the current profile of the pandemic in South Africa that the centralisation of these extraordinary powers is no longer required and that individual departments should once again be tasked with the role of providing an enabling environment for businesses to flourish,” says Rosemary Anderson, National Chair FEDHASA.

In the case of tourism and hospitality, this includes improving the visibility and accessibility of South Africa to our inbound international source markets through a proper eVisa system and additional budget for tourism marketing to restore the destination’s reputational issues caused by Omicron at the end of 2021.

“Temporary waivers should be considered for key markets and segments and a best-of-breed world-class fully automated eVisa should be instituted to replace the manual processing that currently takes place otherwise we will fall further behind our competitors. It is far too difficult for some of our key source markets to get visas,” says Anderson.

The small window of opportunity to raise the profile of destination South Africa is closing, with Australia, South Africa’s largest long-haul competitor, announcing it would reopen borders soon. “The destination’s tourism marketing budget was reduced during COVID and compares poorly with the tourism budgets of competitor destinations. Additional funds for tourism marketing would help to some extent undo some of the destination reputation damage caused by Omicron in 2021,” says Anderson.

Further, there are several quick wins that would allow tourism to bounce back faster and create the hundreds of thousands of jobs South Africa desperately needs it to – most notably fixing the dysfunctional tourism vehicle licencing process which has been delayed for several years and resolving the liquor boards stalemate which has caused liquor licencing issues.

“Red tape and dysfunctional institutions need to be transformed into agile, professionally run entities which create an enabling environment for tourism and hospitality to do what it does best, create jobs. These measures will go some way to help tourism deliver on its promise as South Africa’s new gold, Mr President,” Anderson concludes. 

“The UK being our largest inbound international market, last night’s news by the British Government has caused widespread disbelief and disappointment amongst our hospitality industry as we enter our peak festive season period,” says Rosemary Anderson, FEDHASA National Chairperson.

“New variants are discovered all the time, often without making any major impact, and we are still hopeful that our advanced scientific capability will find that in this case there is little to worry about. However, that does not mean that this decision by the British government won’t have widespread repercussions, not only by dissuading British travellers to visit South Africa, but also due to the likely spin-off we will see from other key source markets if they take the UK’s lead,” says Anderson.

FEDHASA highlights how unsustainable this situation is for South Africa and for its tourism and hospitality sector which generates 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs and is the country’s second-largest export.

“There is no question that South Africans need to go out and get vaccinated as a matter of urgency. To be locked down on a semi-regular basis and banned for international travel because of our advanced genomic sequencing capability and low vaccination rates cannot continue. We depend on tourism for jobs and livelihoods,” Anderson says. 

Further, as we head into the festive season with a rising infection rate and the prospect of local lockdowns which directly impact the hospitality sector, Anderson calls on South Africans to do everything in their power to stem the spread of a fourth wave.

“We simply cannot have a repeat of December 2020 where restaurants and hospitality businesses bore the brunt of COVID regulations making travel and restaurant patronage unappealing and difficult. Our industry has had to endure being thrust from wave to wave for the past 20 months and it simply isn’t sustainable to keep businesses open and livelihoods intact. It is up to every South African to do their part and help us keep our doors open by complying with the protocols and getting their #jab4tourism,” Anderson concludes.

There is reason for optimism that the industry would enjoy continued growth and recovery as it heads into the festive season.

Says Rosemary Anderson, FEDHASA National Chairperson: “The hospitality industry is clawing its way back to being a viable industry once again, with businesses putting in significant capital to market themselves in an effort to secure these increases.”

This, together with the support of the South African public and growing international tourism arrivals, have ensured that in September 2021, all accommodation types recorded positive year-on-year growth in income. The largest positive month-on-month growth rates were recorded for guesthouses and guest farms (30,3%), hotels (21,5%) and other accommodation (19,4%).

StatsSA’s Food and Beverages’ key report for September 2021 shows that the total income generated by the industry increased by 23,4% in September 2021 compared with September 2020. The largest annual growth rate was recorded for food sales (27,1%). In September 2021, the main contributors to the 23,4% year-on-year increase were restaurants and coffee shops, as well as takeaway and fast-food outlets.

“This upward trajectory will only continue if the industry is not hamstrung by renewed regulations such as those imposed over last year’s festive season. It is our fervent appeal to government to use all other measures available to stem a possible wave as shutting down the hospitality sector this year as many hospitality businesses try to return to some level of financial stability would be catastrophic,” says Anderson.

“Consistency remains key to the survival of the hospitality industry. Ever-changing regulations dampen demand and while we recognise and are committed to supporting Government in its efforts to fight COVID, we also understand that it is largely in the hands of ordinary South Africans who we urge to get vaccinated and adhere to the health and hygiene protocols to reduce pressure on our healthcare system,” says Anderson.

“This will go a long way in safeguarding the positive trajectory the hospitality industry is seeing as government will not be required to impose restrictions that will hamper operations and prevent us from staying open, securing livelihoods and retaining jobs at the time of year when we are busiest,” concludes Anderson.