Businesses prepare for South Africa’s lockdown restrictions to last until 2021
South Africa’s tourism industry is preparing for the country’s lockdown restrictions to last beyond the end of 2020.
Presenting in a webinar on Monday (11 May), South African Tourism chief executive office Sisa Ntshona said that the industry was still working on ‘guesstimates’, but that based on current projections, the country would only reach level 1 of its lockdown by Q1 2021.
“We have no clue as to when we will move to level 3 as a country, or level 2 or level 1. We also have no clue as to how long we will stay at level 4. It will all depend on the trajectory of the pandemic.”
He added that tourism in the country will only become partially active at level 2 of the lockdown, with the sector beginning to fully open up again at level 1.
“Based on the current trajectory we are seeing, where September is where we have peak coronavirus cases, it is likely that level 2 will kicks in around November and level 1 kicks in around January 2021,” Ntshona said.
He said that this trajectory is also based on the government’s current classifications of sectors and that it may decide to open tourism in the country at an earlier date if the sector takes steps to reduce risks.
“The conversation that is happening is ‘what can be done’ to de-risk the sector. In the current form, it is level 1, however, it can be re-rated to a lesser risk and can move up the scale.”
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