Some companies said they were being overwhelmed by the
number of people looking to travel since the British government announced it
will lift restrictions on travelers arriving from 47 countries, including South
Africa. The change will come into effect on Monday.
The decision to keep South Africa on the red list had been
criticized by the country’s government, tourism operators and scientists,
leading to a series of discussions between the leaders of both countries and
their respective health experts.
The British rules banned anyone who had been in a red list
country in the previous 10 days from visiting Britain. Only U.K. and Irish
nationals or returning residents were allowed to enter from South Africa or
other red list countries, and they faced a mandatory 10-day quarantine.
The rules also severely limited British tourists visiting
South Africa as they were advised by their government they “should not” travel
to red list countries and faced expensive hotel quarantine stays on their
return home if they did.
The U.K. is South Africa’s biggest tourism source market
outside Africa with more than 400,000 British travelers ordinarily visiting
every year, according to official figures. That figure plunged to less than
10,000 so far this year because of the pandemic.
Flight Centre, one of South Africa’s biggest travel
agencies, said it was struggling to cope with the demand sparked by the British
announcement.
“The minute the announcement came through we could see on
our online booking tools as well as our email inquiries and telephone calls
this morning that there was a big surge,” Andrew Stark, Flight Centre Travel
Group managing director, said Friday. “It has been pretty manic.”
“We see this as most source markets open up, the following
day we are inundated, we just cannot keep up with the demand, to be honest,” he
said.
Rosemary Anderson, chairwoman of hospitality association
FEDHASA, said she is also seeing “a flurry of activity of South Africans
wanting to travel to the U.K. and British people wanting to come to South
Africa.”
“We are going into summer, the U.K. is going towards autumn
and many British people have not been able to travel to sunny places, so that
makes South Africa a great destination for them,” she said.
South African tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu also welcomed
the British decision, which comes in time for the start of the country’s peak
tourism season near the end of the year.
“We look forward to welcoming our British visitors in time
for the South African summer season and we will continue to work tirelessly
with all our national and international partners to ensure the success of South
Africa’s tourism recovery,” Sisulu said in a statement.
South Africa’s important tourism industry has been decimated
by the pandemic and the damage was prolonged by the U.K. keeping it on the red
list, stakeholders said.
South Africa is Africa’s worst-affected country by the
virus, with more than 2.9 million cases and 88,000 deaths reported. It is also
the country where the beta variant was first detected. It has vaccinated 16% of
its population of 60 million people, according to Johns Hopkins University, and
started issuing digital vaccine certificates which may be used by travelers on
Friday.
All of the 22 other African countries still on Britain’s red
list will also be removed on Monday, leaving the strictest travel restrictions
in place for just seven countries: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. -AP