Attribute to Otto de Vries, CEO ASATA
ASATA is delighted with last night’s announcement that families with children between the ages of five and 12 years no longer need to provide a negative PCR test when returning to South Africa. Family travel is a significant segment for South Africa’s travel industry and without the option to vaccinate under 12 year olds, this has meant that families travelling overseas have been forced to bear additional expenses and inconvenience, deterring them from even travelling to destinations that do not in fact require a negative PCR test for under 12 year olds for entry. For travel to happen we need consistency and certainty. Consequently, we look forward to the finalisation of regulations in the next few months so that this is achieved.
Attribute to Robert More, Founder and CEO MORE Family Collection
We are delighted that SA Health Regulations issued overnight have removed the requirement for unvaccinated five to 12 year olds to have a negative PCR test to travel to South Africa. We have seen the pent-up demand from large family groups wanting to travel to South Africa grow recently and it has been a significant barrier to inbound travel for families, while competitors like East Africa have made it much easier and more accessible to travel to the destination. We are confident that with this change we will be in a position to inspire more families to visit our shores, which bodes well for our tourism industry’s recovery.
Attribute to Rosemary Anderson, National Chairperson FEDHASA
FEDHASA welcomes the issuing of the interim regulations which have changed the requirement for families with children. Children between the ages of five and 12 years no longer need to provide a negative PCR test when travelling to South Africa. The regulations now only require this from children over 12 years of age.
We are heartened that the Department appears to have listened to our industry’s calls for this regulation to be altered. Family travel being one of the pillars of inbound tourism to South Africa, this previous requirement had meant that SA had made itself unattractive to young families. With the removal thereof we trust that we can once again start rebuilding ourselves as a destination of choice for families, to help our industry recover.
We do however question the continuing requirement of reduced gathering sizes which are not based in science and mean that many of the international events we would host in South Africa will now simply not be viable, which will result in further job losses in our industry. For any medium to long-term planning to take place and events business to be secured, we need certainty. Waiting another 3 months will means that we will be losing many event opportunities during this time.
Certainty is the one ingredient that is essential for our industry to survive and thrive – we urge Government to lift the restrictions on events’ gathering sizes sooner than later and provide the certainty our industry requires to be able to be the job creator we could otherwise be.
We could be positioning South Africa as a leading meetings, incentives, conferencing, and events destination which would positively contribute towards alleviating the massive unemployment rate in our country, particularly the youth.
Attribute to David Frost, CEO SATSA
While we are delighted that the negative PCR test requirement for families with children aged five to 12 years has been removed, we are disappointed that our Department of Health has continued with regulations that have no scientific base such as the size of gatherings. This is especially galling since that same department took umbrage with the unscientific approach of overseas governments which put in place restrictions against South Africa with the discovery of the Omicron. Why then, when the shoe is on the same foot, do we do the same?
