Our proposed approach: Allow all international travelers with negative PCR test
7 October 2020
The risk-based approach regulating international travel released by national government last week (30 September 2020) has created unnecessary confusion and uncertainty in the travel and tourism industry, and much distress for those who are desperate to return to loved ones, visit our beautiful province or resume business operations as safely as possible, and so we again reiterate our call for a review of these restrictions as soon as possible.
The current restrictions allow business travellers from high-risk countries to enter South Africa with a negative PCR test, but not leisure travellers, which makes no sense and is unfair. There is simply no greater risk for transmission of the Covid-19 virus based on the purpose of travel, yet the negative impact of continuing to limit the entry of leisure travellers to South Africa, especially from our key source markets, is severe and extreme.
International markets are a key economic driver for the tourism sector in the Western Cape, and so the full reopening of our borders to leisure travellers, with stringent health protocols in place ahead of the summer season is absolutely critical to the sector’s immediate recovery, medium-term stability and long-term survival.
That is why today (07 October 2020), I have written a letter to Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, with an attached submission detailing an alternative approach to safely open international travel in a way that avoids confusion and uncertainty.