Johannesburg, Oct 22 (IANS) South Africa’s tourism industry was losing over R300 million (18.4 million US dollars) daily due to lack of international tourists, said Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA).
“It’s a large sum of money we are losing. There’s little activity that has happened since the re-opening of borders,” TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa told Xinhua on Wednesday.
While borders were reopened on October 1, tourists from some European countries and the United States are barred due to high levels of Covid-19 cases there.
“People who were coming through have cancelled their bookings due to high-risk list,” said Tshivhengwa, accommodation figures were down more than 80 per cent.
Statistics South Africa estimated that accommodation alone lost more than R7 billion between March and July which was during the lockdown.
He said tourists from countries not on the high-risk list such as China and Japan usually make their bookings at this time of the year, but he was not sure if they would still come in their numbers in 2020.
–IANS
int/