The government has approved the vaccination of frontline workers in the tourism sector as part of a move to stimulate recovery in the industry.
This was announced by tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane during the launch of the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan (TSRP) in Sandton on Thursday.
Kubayi-Ngubane said the Tourism Business Council SA made the request to the department to have frontline workers in the sector benefit in the second phase of the country’s vaccination programme.
“That has been approved. Mechanisms are being finalised at Nedlac [National Economic Development and Labour Council] level because we have to be able to say in this area how are we going to identify the sites and all those details.
“It will be your tour guides, receptionists... those type of people because they work face-to-face with the traveller. This will have a huge impact in improving confidence of travellers that South Africa is a safe place to visit. Quite a number of our travellers globally keep on asking 'if I come to your country, will I interact with somebody who is not vaccinated and would that person not put me at risk?' We believe many of the people who are cautious will feel free to come to our country,” she said.
SA’s vaccination programme began in February with the inoculation of health workers. The second phase of the programme will target people over the age of 60, those with comorbidities and frontline workers such as police and teachers. This phase is expected to start on May 18.
The TSRP, which has been approved by cabinet, entails:
- support for the core tourism infrastructure and assets;
- implementation of norms and standard for safe operations across the value chain to enable safe travel and rebuild traveller confidence;
- stimulate domestic demand through targeted initiatives and campaigns;
- execution of a global marketing strategy to reignite international demand;
- launch an investment support to grow the sector;
- review of tourism policy to provide enhanced support for the sector growth; and
- introduce tourism regional integration.
The tourism department has been working on the TSRP for some months after the sector suffered huge losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. TSRP has been developed in line with the government’s overall economic recovery plans for the country.
Kubayi-Ngubane said the government has started working with the private sector to address the issue of guarantees for refunds in cancellation of bookings.
“People demand to have these clauses when they book for travel. Travellers also want the flexibility of change of date and destination,” she said.
She said that experience over the past months has shown an increase in demand for open spaces or rural holidays and outdoor activities where travellers can avoid congested spaces. This is viewed as another opportunity which will be explored to increase domestic travel which is recovering well.
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