David Frost, CEO SATSA
“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.”