South African Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has confirmed that tourism will only be likely to operate in level one of the COVID-19 framework for the risk-adjusted strategy, adding that the department was doing all it could to ensure a quicker recovery.

The Department of Tourism hosted a webinar on Wednesday (April 29) focusing on ‘The State of the Tourism Sector’ and featuring CEO of SA Tourism, Sisa Ntshona and the Minister.

“The full impact of the pandemic on the South African tourism industry is still unknown and we are aware that international travel will only likely resume in 2021,” said Kubayi-Ngubane. “We have to focus on targeting the domestic market once tourism is able to operate.”

The Minister explained that the department was analysing the tourism industry to see which sectors were high- and low-risk for spreading the virus.

“We are working with various stakeholders to see which sectors of the industry can operate in the different levels of the framework and we are guided by the Department of Health in this analysis,” said Kubayi-Ngubane.

“We need to take in account that no sector in the tourism industry will be able to operate as it did before the pandemic.”

Kubayi-Ngubane expressed her concern on the possible stigma that could impact the travel and tourism industry, even when it resumed at level one of the framework. “We’re aware that society may believe that travel and tourism brought the virus to South Africa, and could lead to a hostile environment for international travel to resume.

“As the tourism industry, we need to show we are doing everything we can to mitigate the spread of the virus so that this possible stigma won’t impact tourism once it resumes, and help strengthen the case of de-risking certain sectors of the industry.”