FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL GROUP WELCOMES SOUTH AFRICA’S REMOVAL FROM THE UK RED LIST

JOHANNESBURG, 14 DECEMBER 2021 – The Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) welcomes the announcement today by the UK Government that from 4am on Wednesday 15 December 2021, South Africa will be removed from the UK’s red list.

“We are simply delighted that reason and fact have prevailed and that travel between South Africa and the UK is once again open,” says Euan McNeil, Managing Director Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa.

“This not only means that South Africans can reunite with their loved ones over the festive season but is welcome news for the travel and tourism industry. The UK is one of our largest source markets so the knee-jerk decision on 26 November to place South Africa on the red list was absolutely devastating for outbound and inbound travel. It put our economy, and the millions of jobs employed in these sectors, at risk.”

“We continue to work closely with all our travel suppliers and are hopeful that full air access can resume as soon as possible so that there is enough capacity to service the expected demand.”

As the information currently stands:

• Any travellers currently in quarantine will need to remain there.
• All testing requirements remain in place, such as a Covid-19 PCR test taken in the two days before travel to England.
• A Covid-19 PCR test needs to be pre-booked prior to travel and taken after arrival in England.
• A passenger locator form needs to be completed within 48 hours of arrival in England.
• Travellers will be required to self-isolate until they receive their test result.
• If you are in England for less than 2 days, you still need to book and pay for a day 2 Covid-19 test. You must quarantine until you receive a negative test result, or until you leave England (whichever is sooner).
• Isolation/quarantine would no longer take place at a quarantine hotel/facility.

Travellers can visit the gov.uk website for more details.

“The easing of the travel ban and the lifting of the quarantine requirements is fantastic news for South African business travellers for whom the costly quarantine was a major deterrent. This significant decision by the UK government hopefully signals an end to the ad hoc and arbitrary introductions of travel bans in the future. It will also go a long way to help the recovery of the corporate travel sector and boost travel confidence.”

“We are confident other destinations will follow suit and open to South Africa once more. New South Wales in Australia, for example, is also opening to South Africans from 15 December. This gives more travellers the opportunity to finally reconnect with their loved ones over the festive season,” concludes McNeil.

***Ends***

FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL GROUP SOUTH AFRICA

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) SA is part of Flight Centre Travel Group, an Australian-based international travel company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company is listed on the ASX, with a market cap of AU$3.44 billion and a current share price of AU$17.22 as of 14 December 2021. Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa is a level 1 BEE company with three leading brands: Flight Centre, Corporate Traveller and FCM. FCTG SA is wholly owned and has been recognized as one of Deloitte’s Best Companies to Work for in South Africa for 14 consecutive years.

Tuesday, 14 December 2021

TOURISM SECTOR WELCOMES OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION OF SOUTH AFRICA’S REMOVAL FROM UK RED LIST

• OMICRON VARIANT CLASSIFIED LOW-RISK IN MAJOR NEW SOUTH AFRICAN ANALYSIS
• OMICRON ON-TRACK TO BECOME DOMINANT VARIANT IN UK THIS WEEK

Key findings from South Africa study:

• South Africa’s leading private healthcare provider, Discovery Health, unveils the largest real-world assessment of the Omicron variant to date, with over 211,000 positive COVID-19 test results, 41% from adult members who had received two-doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine. Approximately 78,000 of these positive COVID-19 test results were attributed to Omicron infections, over the period 15 November to 7 December 2021.
• Evidence strongly suggests Omicron results in a typically mild illness, irrespective of age or level of prior immunity.
• Rates of South African hospitalisations due to Covid remain low, despite very high Omicron infection levels.
• Numbers of patients in South Africa requiring either oxygen or ventilation due to Covid remains low.
• Two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination provides 70% protection against severe complications of COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation, and 33% protection against COVID-19 infection, during the current Omicron wave.

• Risk of hospital admission among adults diagnosed with COVID-19 is 29% lower for Omicron variant infection compared to D614G infection in South Africa’s first wave in mid-2020, after adjusting for vaccination status

Implications:

• The red list travel restrictions in the UK and across the EU are now redundant due to the low risk presented by Omicron and the high rates of community transmission across the region
• Hospitalisations are likely to remain low in the current wave, irrespective of antibody levels
• Impact likely to be even more modest in countries with high vaccination rates

Encouragingly, the result of the Discovery Health study shows that vaccinated individuals who received two-doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have 70% protection against hospital admission. Whilst protection against hospital admission reduced from the highs of 93% in South Africa’s Delta-driven variant, 70% is still regarded as very good protection.

President of the SAMRC, Professor Glenda Gray said, “We are extremely encouraged by the results of Discovery Health’s analysis. It is extremely important to be able to demonstrate to the public that in a real-world setting – in the presence of a highly transmissible new COVID-19 variant – the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation.”

David Frost, CEO SATSA, representative body for in-bound tourism businesses in South Africa said:

‘This is welcome news but red-listing Southern Africa for just three weeks caused incalculable damage to jobs and livelihoods in the region, with little discernible benefit to health outcomes in the UK.

‘The UK government must now consign this blunt instrument to history and recognise the devastating impact red lists have to confidence amongst the travelling public.’

Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, Chief Executive Officer – TBCSA , said:

“You are as likely to catch Omicron in Coventry as you are in Cape Town, and the scientific evidence is clear, that for most people this variant results in a mild disease which poses no threat to public health.

“Millions of people across Southern Africa are dependent on tourism for an income, and thousands more families are waiting anxiously to know if their loved ones will be home for the holidays. The UK needs to act immediately to begin rebuilding trust with the Global South where this travel policy has caused anger and resentment.”

Notes to Editors:

Tourism – economic impact in Southern Africa

The UK is the largest overseas market for tourism into South Africa. In a typical year approximately 450,000 British passport holders travel into South Africa, contributing to national income from tourism of R265 billion ($18bn). One job in tourism supports up to ten people in rural areas. Tourism supports 1.5 million jobs in South Africa, generating vital income for training and education. This disproportionately benefits the life chances of young women given that approximately 70% of tourism workers are themselves women.

Travel and tourism is also critical to the funding of conservation in Africa. Over the past 30 years government financing for parks and biodiversity protection has declined in favour of a model sustained by eco-tourism. Without this income, rural communities are hit hard. Wildlife is looked at as food rather than an asset to be protected. Tourism infrastructure is destroyed, fences come down and the knowledge and skills in the sector move abroad or into different industries. This negative cycle threatens not only habitats but the planet. Africa’s grasslands and rainforests are only now being appreciated for their role in carbon capture, something that is put at risk if landowners are forced to monetise them through more extractive industries like mining, logging or large-scale agriculture.

Issued by:

Natalia Rosa

Big Ambitions

Tel: 083 449 4334

Email: natalia@bigambitions.co.za

The UK announced on 14 December that it would scrap its contentious red list effective 15 December 2021 at 04h00 and ease travel restrictions for travellers from 11 countries, including South Africa. Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom, said that also the expensive quarantine packages would be scrapped and that travellers from South Africa could self-isolate at a location of their choice.

“When the UK initially red listed South Africa following the discovery of the Omicron variant in November, countries around the world immediately followed suit and issued travel bans on our country. Within the space of a couple of hours, South Africans were banned from travelling to dozens of countries around the world. We urge that these countries react with the same swiftness and urgency now by also lifting their travel bans and restrictions on South Africa with immediate effect,” says Otto de Vries, CEO ASATA.

The travel bans imposed on South Africa were nothing short of devastating for the travel industry. Forward bookings collapsed with feedback from the industry suggesting that bookings until mid-February 2022 were severely impacted.

“The travel industry rallied together once more and lobbied for the travel bans to be lifted as a matter of urgency. I’m happy to see that our collective efforts have been successful and that we can once again focus on the recovery of our travel industry. We are hopeful that we can save a part of the December/January holidays for at least some South African travellers whether they’d like to spend a well-deserved holiday or have been dreaming to spend the festive season with their loved ones overseas,” concludes de Vries.

***ENDS***

To request an interview with ASATA CEO, Otto de Vries, please contact Claire Lathe on 084 245 2189 or email claire@bigambitions.co.za.

For more information about ASATA, please visit www.asata.co.za.

About ASATA

Established in 1956, the Association of Southern African Travel Agents is a representative forum registered as an Association of Persons, that promotes professional service in the travel industry for both members and their clients. Representing over 95% of the travel industry in terms of market share, ASATA’s membership is voluntary and includes South African retail travel agents, travel management companies, wholesalers and suppliers of travel-related products and services.

Issued by Big Ambitions:

Natalia Rosa

natalia@bigambitions.co.za

083 449 4334

After months of lobbying by various industry bodies such as SATSA and ASATA and lengthy discussions between scientists and our President and the British Prime Minister, we are delighted by the long overdue announcement that such decisions are now being made on firm scientific evidence – and that travel between the UK and South Africa will now be much easier. 

More than 123 countries around the globe are already open (with varying conditions in place) to South African travellers.  
 
The UK is one of our biggest markets as an outbound travel company, so it will be a huge sigh of relief from a cost perspective. We are hopeful that the news will bring additional air supply into the market. This will be good for our customers giving them more choice and better pricing and availability on flights. 
 
For our leisure travel customers, South Africans can now eventually be reunited with family and friends and will be able to visit them over the December and January holiday period. South African holidaymakers now have much more choice, with many bestselling destinations welcoming us, such as Mauritius and Thailand among others, and with the USA set to open to vaccinated travellers with visas from November. 
 
The announcement comes just in the nick of time for the inbound tourism industry which supports the livelihoods of more than 1.5 million South Africans. With the peak December season fast approaching, creating and safeguarding these jobs is of paramount importance. 

 
There is huge reciprocal business between South Africa and the UK so this is great news for SMMEs and multinational companies.

Oz Desai, Corporate Traveller GM  

The removal of South Africa from the UK red list from 11 October is a game-changer for South African business travellers. Until now, the expensive and lengthy quarantine requirement has been a major deterrent for business travellers. Although clarity is still needed on whether the UK recognises South Africa’s vaccination system, we are hopeful South Africa will be among the 37 new countries and territories of which the UK will recognise the vaccination status.  

London has always been a popular route for both South African leisure and business travellers with Heathrow recognised as one of the top international airports for corporate traffic originating from South Africa. The fact that vaccinated South Africans could travel freely to the UK, which is one of our top business destinations, would likely significantly boost business travel between the two countries. 

Being on the UK’s ‘red list’ has been costing South Africa’s economy more than R790 million every month, or R26 million a day, in lost tourism spend. This is according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). 

The WTTC data showed that every day South Africa remained on the UK’s ‘red list’, the country lost millions of dollars, effectively delaying the global socio-economic recovery. 

Currently there are 123 African or Africa-focussed corporates listed or trading in London, more than on any other international exchange. A great number of SA businesses have also set up headquarters in the UK to tap into the global trade opportunities. For these companies, it’s imperative that a seamless travel regime between the UK and South Africa is re-established. 

The announcement from the UK comes as the South African government launched its much-anticipated digital health certificate system earlier in the week. Fully vaccinated South African travellers can now download their digital vaccine certificates here. 

Liezl Gericke​,Virgin Atlantic Head of Middle East, Africa & South Asia 

“We expect a surge in bookings once South Africa is formally removed from the Red List, but early indicators are very positive.  LHRJNB has been in the top 5 selling routes in the VS network over the past weekend, with most bookings for travel in December and January; this is a 460% week on week increase, albeit from a low base.  VS currently operates three passenger flights a week from LHR to JNB, and this will increase to a daily service by the end of the year.  We remain committed to Cape Town, and this service will restart in January 2022.”​ 

“This decision is long overdue, but it will come as a huge relief to hundreds of thousands of tourism workers in South Africa, in addition to scores of holiday companies in the UK.  Our UK operators have already seen a surge in enquiries from sun-starved Brits looking for a winter escape, and early estimates suggest that upwards of 300,000 British passport holders expect to visit friends and family or take advantage of highly-competitive holiday deals across Southern Africa in the coming months.”​ 

Rosemary Anderson​, FEDHASA National Chair ​ 

“FEDHASA is elated for our industry. Supporting 1.5 million people, our tourism and hospitality sector will enjoy a significant boost with our largest source market being open to travel which in turn means a boost for job security and livelihoods. Prior to COVID, some 440,000 British travellers visited South Africa so the news that they have once again been given the green light to travel to South Africa without the onerous requirement of having to quarantine in a government-designated hotel on their return bodes exceptionally well for us.”​ 

 “South Africa has the perfect tourism and hospitality ingredients to position itself as one of the world’s top international travel destinations.  Focussing on buoying tourism, we could triple the number of visitors who visit our spectacular shores, thereby creating millions of more jobs in our sector.  Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has assured our tourism sector that she is very willing to join hands with us and market South Africa like it has never been marketed before. United as one Team Tourism, we can achieve significant job creation in our tourism and hospitality industry and become the silver bullet South Africa needs to make a significant dent in the country’s unemployment crisis.”​ 

Sean Kritzinger​, Chairman & Co-owner Giltedge​ 

“Enquiries certainly picked up significantly when US President Joe Biden made the announcement that from 1 November the US would relax travel restrictions for vaccinated travellers. Lead times from enquiry to travel are as short as two to three months for couples, while multi-generational groups are tending to book further out, but we are certainly seeing heightened interest in South Africa from the US market.”​ 

David Ryan​, Rhino Africa Safaris‘ Founder & CEO​ 

As we anticipate the long-awaited removal of South Africa from the UK’s red list of travel restricted countries later week, and a downgrade in United Sates CDC Alert level, to level 3 this morning, we at Rhino Africa are already seeing the green shoots of recovery our Tourism Industry has long been waiting for.​ 

Over the past week we have seen search interest in South and Southern Africa return to pre-covid-19 levels with a 70 % jump in enquiry delivery over the past 30 days.​ 

If our German and French markets provide any indication for pent up demand and a resumption of travel, a removal of SA from the red list will certainly allow for a surge in last minute bookings for the December holiday season for destinations like Cape Town, the Garden Route and Kruger, given the UK is South Africa’s no 1 Tourism source market.​ 

Add to that, as certainty around government regulations and restrictions allow for greater travel confidence, for the first time in nineteen months we at Rhino Africa saw booking to enquiry conversions return to pre-covid-19 levels – over 25% in markets like Germany, with short lead times, indicating pent up demand.​​ 

All signs indicate that the removal of South Africa from the UK’s red list will be akin to the unblocking of a pipe – and the commencement of travel and recovery of our tourism industry will finally be able to begin.  And it couldn’t come at a better time as South Africa enters its traditionally peak summer season.​ 

Liezl Gericke​, Virgin Atlantic Head of Middle East, Africa & South Asia 

“We expect a surge in bookings once South Africa is formally removed from the Red List, but early indicators are very positive.  LHRJNB has been in the top 5 selling routes in the VS network over the past weekend, with most bookings for travel in December and January; this is a 460% week on week increase, albeit from a low base.  VS currently operates three passenger flights a week from LHR to JNB, and this will increase to a daily service by the end of the year.  We remain committed to Cape Town, and this service will restart in January 2022.”​ 

Craig Smith​, Managing Director New Frontiers 

“The UK is up 35% on a weekly rolling average (bookings and quotes) and confirmed bookings for Festive Season made in the last 7 days, which is short notice. This contributed to last week being our busiest week in terms of quotes and bookings this year, which will grow exponentially once an official red list announcement is made.”​ 

Maija de Rijk-Uys, Go2Africa‘s Managing Director 

Since the US market opened, and Americans were able to travel to South Africa, requests and bookings for travel to South Africa picked up. Our bookings from the US are currently very close to 2019 booking numbers. This shows the potential for the UK to open the travel lanes to South Africa. 

Go2Africa has seen the UK market shrink to one third of pre-COVID numbers, leading to a 81% loss in revenue from the UK. More pertinently, this has of course caused major revenue losses to the entire tourism value chain in South Africa. We witness the devastation caused by the UK restriction on a daily basis with major losses experienced by accommodation establishments, lodges, activities and logistics partners we work with across South Africa.  The closure of the UK borders also led to a vastly diminished support of communities and conservation in South Africa. 

The past 18 months have shown us that COVID-related restrictions have direct impact on interest and conversion of bookings. 

Illana Clayton, CEO Travel Smart Crew 

“We saw almost immediate demand from markets like the Dutch, Germans and US as travel restrictions eased or were removed. Bookings may not be near the volumes they were pre-pandemic, but inbound international travellers started booking immediately and with very short lead times illustrating the pent-up demand from our source markets.”​

The Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa in December 2020, has not gained any meaningful presence outside South Africa owing to its low transmissibility and the effectiveness of vaccines against it. Of the four major variants of concern identified by the World Health Organisation, Beta has the lowest transmissibility advantage (25%) over the ancestral Covid variant that originated in China. By comparison, the Delta variant is 95% more transmissible, and now accounts for over 96% of all genomes sequenced in South Africa in the latest data issued by the National Institute of Clinical Diseases (NICD).

Early small-scale studies of the Beta variant indicated a potential vaccine evasion risk, but these fears have been disproved in larger real-world research such as that released by the Canadian Immunization Network in July 2021, which revealed that a single dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine conferred an 82% protection against severe disease and death from Beta. Protection that was estimated to rise to 95% on delivery of a second dose, comparable to all the major vaccines deployed in the US and Europe. AstraZeneca endorsed the research announcing that its vaccine provided “good to excellent protection” against the Beta variant.

Following the rapid decline in its overall infection rates since July and the dominance of the Delta variant in South Africa, most European countries have now removed travel restrictions for South Africa for fully vaccinated travellers and regular flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town have been re-established. The UK remains a notable exception, with visitors from South Africa obligated to stay in a government-appointed hotel where they must quarantine for 10 days at their own cost.

David Frost, CEO of the South African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), said:

“South Africa’s infection rate is now tracking at a sixth of the UK’s and below key destinations on the UK’s amber travel list, such as the US, France, Germany and Greece. The only variant of concern circulating in South Africa is Delta – the same as the UK, and we have the best testing and sequencing capabilities on the African continent. There is absolutely no scientific basis on which the UK can continue to maintain its travel ban on South Africa, and on behalf of the 1.5 million people who rely on the South African tourism sector for work, we are now calling for an urgent review of the available data by UK authorities.”

Emile Stipp, Chief Health Actuary for Discovery Limited, South Africa’s leading medical insurance provider, said:

“Beta has effectively disappeared in South Africa, and with an estimated 70-80% of South Africans already exposed to the virus, the accelerating vaccine programme will only build on what is now a formidable level of community protection against the Delta variant now currently in circulation.”

Ends

To interview David Frost, contact Natalia Rosa on 083 449 4334 or communications@satsa.co.za.

About SATSA

SATSA, the voice of inbound tourism, is a member-driven association that offers inbound tourism services companies the highest level of quality in the tourism industry. At SATSA, we strive to maintain our three key qualities in all of the work we do: credibility, value and authority. SATSA further provides support to members who require key services and benefits on a local and regional level, and at international trade shows. The organisation also lobbies issues associated and affecting the inbound tourism industry.

Issued by

Eterna Partners (UK)

Locally issued by:

Big Ambitions

Claire Lathe

Claire@bigambitions.co.za

South Africa fulfils the Government’s criteria to be moved onto the amber list, as set out by the Joint Biosecurity Centre:

• COVID-19 transmission risk
  • South Africa’s infection rate is in rapid decline and is already less than a quarter of the UK’s and tracking well below the US and most EU countries on the amber list such as France, Greece, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.
• Variant transmission risk
  • The Beta variant, which was mistakenly believed to evade vaccines, is now non-existent in South Africa. The Delta variant makes up the vast overwhelming majority of cases, just as in the UK. Likewise, recent fears over a new variant (C.1.2) have been significantly exaggerated, as it is now in decline, representing less than 1.5% of recent cases.
• Genomic surveillance capability
  • South Africa is a world leader in genomic sequencing, with some of the leading experts working in the country. They currently rank 23rd in the country rankings of most genomes sequenced per week, and 1st in Africa.
• Antibody rates
  • It is now reliably estimated that 70-80% of people in South Africa have had the virus, compared to 18% in the UK. This means that South Africa has amongst the highest levels of naturally acquired immunity of any country in the world
  • Although the Joint Biosecurity Centre has removed local vaccination rates as a primary criteria in its risk methodology, South Africa is further augmenting its antibody levels through a vaccine programme which is inoculating over 1m people every week.
• Young population
  • South Africa’s median age is 17 versus 40 in the UK, which means South Africa has already achieved high levels of protection in its at-risk group of 60+ years and is now offering vaccines to all over 18s.

Most EU countries as well as the US and Canada have followed the data and reopened travel with South Africa. The isolationist policy of the UK risks squandering the competitive advantage with a region that will define the latter half of this century. If ‘Global Britain’ is to be anything more than a slogan, the UK needs to be present on the international stage.

A growing group in the UK has recognised the injustice of South Africa’s red listing, with more than 32,000 signing a petition for South Africa to be removed from the red list.

In a joint statement, Ben Bradshaw MP, Lord Oates and Baroness Chalker said, “The evidence clearly points to South Africa being removed from the red list. If the UK Government wants to retain the integrity of its traffic light system, it must reward countries which empirically demonstrate they are safe by granting them amber status.”

David Frost, CEO of SATSA the voice of inbound travel to South Africa representing 1350 businesses said, “Every week the UK keeps South Africa on its red list it erodes the vital economic and environmental ties between our two countries. Long after the threat from the pandemic fades, memories of Britain’s duplicity will endure.”

Ends

To interview David Frost, contact Natalia Rosa on 083 449 4334 or communications@satsa.co.za.

About SATSA

SATSA, the voice of inbound tourism, is a member-driven association that offers inbound tourism services companies the highest level of quality in the tourism industry. At SATSA, we strive to maintain our three key qualities in all of the work we do: credibility, value and authority. SATSA further provides support to members who require key services and benefits on a local and regional level, and at international trade shows. The organisation also lobbies issues associated and affecting the inbound tourism industry.

Issued by

Eterna Partners (UK)

Nigel Fairbrass

+44 (0)7799 894 265

Ben Cope

+44 (0) 7503 408 251

Christine Thompson

+44 (0)7766 555 007

Locally issued by:

Big Ambitions

Claire Lathe

Claire@bigambitions.co.za