We were more at threat from Britain and its people, than it ever was from us – but we never imposed punitive quarantines.
Johannesburg - On Monday, South Africa will be off the UK Red List, an incredibly punitive measure that forced any travellers from here to quarantine, at their own, cost for 10 days on arrival in Britain.
The effect of the rule was as simple as it was devastating – it simply wasn’t worth making the trip to South Africa on holiday if you were expatriate South African or leaving SA to spend Christmas if your family lived there. That was the human cost. The cost to our tourism industry would have been catastrophic. Tourism contributed 3% to GDP in 2018. British tourists are the most important part of our overseas tourism market – 440 000 of them spent R10 billion here in 2019. The tourism industry employs 657 000 people in this country. Thanks to Covid-19, we had only 8 000 British tourists visit South Africa in the first five months of this year.
How much of this week’s U-turn was due to the intense South African government pressure and public outrage is difficult to ascertain, because the British government effectively cleared much of Africa at the same time.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tourism lobby pulled through for SA in wrangle over UK red listAs the global Covid-19 response draws closer to ending its second year, the SA tourism industry, battered by local and international lockdowns, is finally seeing light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.
Read more »
Tourism lobby pulled through for SA in wrangle over UK red listAs the global Covid-19 response draws closer to ending its second year, the SA tourism industry, battered by local and international lockdowns, is finally seeing light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.
Read more »
Widespread welcome after UK finally removes SA from red list for travellersB4SA welcomes the decision of the UK authorities, saying common sense has prevailed
Read more »
SA tourism sector looks to bounce back after UK red delist announcement | CitypressSouth Africa is set to be removed from the UK’s red list, which banned almost all travel between the two countries. Analysts say the move is expected to bring a significant boost to the country’s tourism industry, which has been battered by the Covid
Read more »
SA to be removed from UK red list for international travel from MondayThe UK had insisted on keeping SA on its travel red list apparently due to inaccurate information received from a rogue scientist based in the country.
Read more »
SA to be removed from UK red list for international travel from MondaySA is among 47 countries that are set to be removed from the UK travel red list from Monday.
Read more »