The South African economy is losing over R180 million every week it remains on the UK’s ‘red list’ for travel, according to a new study from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
“The impact the UK’s traffic light system imposes on ‘red list’ countries is not only damaging the Travel and Tourism sector but also economies around the world,” WTTC senior vice president Virginia Messina was quoted as saying by Businesstech.
“Our data shows that every day South Africa remains on the UK’s ‘red list’, the country faces losing millions of dollars, effectively delaying the global socio-economic recovery.”
UK travellers, vaccinated or not, travelling to countries on the ‘red list’ are required to defray the cost of a 10-day hotel quarantine upon returning to the UK, coupled with the fees for the COVID-19 tests.
Messina said the South African government should continue ramping up the vaccination programme to restart international travel.
South Africa was among the most popular destinations for UK travellers in 2019, accounting for 7% of international visitor spending, representing R9.4 billion, according to the WTTC’s annual Economic Impact Report (EIR) report.
International visitor spending dropped 66%, from more than R134 billion in 2019 to just R46 billion in 2020 due to COVID-19.
