THE hustle and bustle of local and international tourists may not be as evident in uMhlanga this year. However, the area’s tourism office remains optimistic that bookings will increase as the season progresses.

The vice chairman for Umhlanga Tourism, Sabelo Didi said that while the situation did look rather ‘bleak at the moment’, he remained hopeful.

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“The lifting of the red status is probably a bit late and we shall rely on the domestic market to fill occupancy at our hotels and bed and breakfasts,” said Didi.

He said that locals wishing to travel were also waiting to see if there would be any further restrictions, such as the closing of borders, which could affect their return home.

“Our occupancy is standing at 39%, which is a far cry from pre-covid days where our establishments were fully booked. The data fluctuates daily,” he said.

Didi added that general consensus from holiday establishment owners and managers is that they hope things will improve.

“The initial closure of international borders had a negative impact on tourism. The length of stay and daily expenditure of international tourists is far more compared to domestic tourists,” he said.

“Seeing that South Africa has been cleared off the United Kingdom red list, this gives us huge hope that the number of international bookings will increase as the United Kingdom is one of our source markets,” he added.