The recent travel bans from southern Africa by the West on fears of the Omicron variant will seriously affect tourism in southern Africa at a time the region registers the bulk of its tourism revenue.
“In less than 48 hours, our outbound and indoor industry was destroyed for the next three months,” Association of Southern African Travel Agents chief executive Otto de Vries was quoted as saying by Skift.
“The knee-jerk reaction from countries around the world has been nothing short of a disaster for the (local) travel industry.”
In South Africa alone cancelled bookings due to the travel bans have cost the country’s tourism industry $61.9 million.
The Department of Economic Development and Tourism expect revenue to further decrease between December and February due to the international bans.
South Africa’s travel agencies had already been struggling to stay afloat before the recent travel bans.
Just above 75% of travel agencies reported last April 2021 that they had been forced to cut salaries for their employees while 55% had to implement retrenchments.
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