(Johannesburg) The decision of London, followed by other countries, to deny their territory to South Africans after the discovery of a new worrying variant, is “hasty”, “unfair” and “disastrous”, alarmed Friday tourism professionals, fearing a “snowball effect” on the entire economy.
“It’s really an instinctive, premature reaction,” said Richard de la Rey, who manages animal reserves and coastal complexes in the region, overwhelmed by cascading cancellations, to AFP. “We do not know anything yet about this new variant, but we immediately consider the worst,” he regrets.
Potentially highly contagious and with multiple mutations, the B.1.1529 variant has been detected in South Africa, scientists said Thursday, who do not yet know how effective the vaccines will be in combating it.
In the evening, London announced the ban on flights from six countries in southern Africa. Singapore followed suit on Friday, then Italy, Germany …
“The recovery was just starting to take hold,” confirms Shelly Cox, co-founder of Africa Conservation Travel, which offers environmentally conscious itineraries near Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border, one of the most popular sites. visited from the region.
In recent weeks, “there were a lot of last minute bookings for the Christmas period, we were looking forward to the idea that it would be a better month of December than last year”… and patatras.
Morongoe Khoboko, tour operator in Johannesburg, has no time to rest. “Since this morning, it’s madness. Everyone is calling to cancel ”.
Customers are now rather used to the ups and downs of the pandemic: “Instead of being reimbursed, most opt for a postponement of their reservations, to use them at a later date,” she nuances with the AFP.
Africa scapegoat
For Andre Van Kets, safari operator, the news is “a sudden shock”. Since October, and the reopening of flights between Great Britain and South Africa, the sector flourished again.
“The desire of travelers to jump on a plane was obvious. The impressive reservations, we were really optimistic ”.
“We had moved up a gear,” he explains. While his staff had been working part-time and half-pay for roughly 18 months, “everyone had finally come back to full-time, we even advertised to hire, the demand was such,” he says.
Sadly ironically, his company, Discover Africa, is having its end of year party on Friday. While 90% of customers are British and American, Mr. Van Kets is concerned that the United States is now following suit.
Tourism professionals find the fine heavy and unfair, while many South Africans continue to wear masks, to respect distances. On the other hand, they are only 35% to be fully vaccinated, certainly much more than elsewhere on the continent, but too little to reassure.
“Foreigners were slowly coming back, but it is true that we expected a fourth wave in December”, relativizes Richard de la Rey. He “can understand that governments are panicking, but there must be something else to do than close everything” like that, overnight, “it affects our freedoms too”, he regrets.
South Africans, and Africa in general, “once again play the role of scapegoat,” accuses the Johannesburg-based professional. Big fan of rugby, “I see on TV stadiums filled with tens of thousands of supporters. No mask, no distancing… but is South Africa still the problem? He asks, sorry and furious.