Is the South African growth jinx is finally weaning away? It is too early to celebrate, but things are seemingly looking up at least in certain segments like tourism. But to believe that it is the light at the end of the tunnel may be too optimistic, however, desirable it could be.EU recently removed South Africa, known for its several tourist spots from its Covid red listing. There was hectic lobbying done by the stakeholders with the EU. That means a green signal to tourists to visit the country, who have a good number of wanderlusts from EU countries visiting there. South Africa’s tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu was ecstatic about the development, but he rued that the country has lost over a billion rand in much-needed tourism revenue during the peak December holiday season. The country’s strong man Cyril Ramaphosa also hit out on the discriminatory decision of the EU and termed t unfortunate. The ban imposed on South Africa led to a spate of cancellations from tourists hailing from Britain and over 20 other countries, which also had imposed a travel ban on South Africa immediately after it first announced the discovery of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus in November. Coming after six weeks after lifting its first red listing, South Africa set up a war room within days of the UK imposing the travel ban, involving the stakeholders of tourism in the country such as tourism industry associations, including the Tourism Business Council of South Africa; the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA); Southern African Tourism Services Association; Southern African Association for the Conference Industry and Cape Town Tourism, as well as industry stakeholders who had been involved in the previous lobby for South Africa to be removed from the UK’s red list. European nations had suspended most air travel from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe as scientists scrambled to assess the severity of the omicron variant. South Africa’s 10.2 million international overnight visitors in 2019 dropped by 70 percent to 3.2 million in 2020 as the pandemic lockdowns started across the globe. Figures for 2021 are not available yet, but industry players expect them to be even worse.
