Covid-19 and your holiday trip
“Use promotions and specials offered by hotels and resorts to book your holiday ahead of time.”
If possible, don’t haggle for a better deal when planning your December holidays, an accommodation booking company has pleaded with South Africans following the national lockdown.
“The only way our tourism industry can recover from the lockdown is to have our own people be tourists in the country,” said Shaun Lamont of First Group booking company.
“Or at least until the international travel ban for leisure is lifted.”
Covid-19 and the subsequent national lockdown have had a profound impact on the national tourism sector.
According to the recent tourism sector recovery plan Covid-19 response report, the industry faces “likely” job losses of as many as 438 000.
The pandemic has devastated the global travel trade and South Africa has not been spared.
By late March, hotel occupancy was down 50%.
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With the rest of the sector, it has declined further to effectively under 5%, mainly serving as quarantine and isolation sites and providing for essential services workers under level 5 lockdown.
During the lockdown, many hoteliers, guesthouses, restaurants have closed establishments, airlines have halted their operations and all attractions remained shut.
Booking sites in South Africa have largely reflected global trends: Airbnb experienced a 77% drop in traffic from a peak in March while Booking.com saw an 80% decline over the same period.
Implication being that tourism would operate at less than 25% of normal levels across 2020.
Under the government’s risk-adjusted strategy, there would be a full domestic re-opening in the fourth quarter of 2020 and inbound re-opening in early 2021.
The forecasted revenue loss for the remainder of the year is R149.7-billion.
“Use promotions and specials offered by hotels and resorts to book your holiday ahead of time,” said Lamont.
“Plan your trip for 2021 when the Covid-19 storm has weathered.”
He was confident that when things return to normal, the reputation of establishments will depend on experiences by holiday-goers before the lockdown.
“Don’t underestimate the power of your support by sharing, liking and following your favourite holiday destinations on social media. Tourism has had a really rough ride.
“There’s no doubt that this pandemic will pass and we’ll get back to normal – albeit a ‘new normal’. When that happens, let’s make sure that our hospitality industry doesn’t only survive, but thrives. We live in a beautiful country, so please support local.”
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