Just as the travel industry was starting to recover from the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement of a new Covid variant under investigation in South Africa has dealt a massive blow to the country.

Thanks to South Africa’s advanced genomic sequencing, the Omicron Covid variant was discovered in our labs, but regrettably the United Kingdom’s knee-jerk reaction to place SA back on the Red List after the announcement has caused a domino effect, with several countries following suit, which has had a disastrous effect on the tourism industry.

After the UK (South Africa’s biggest tourist source market) removed an 18-month long travel ban in September, bookings started to pour in. The local tourism industry was pinning its hopes on a busy December holiday season to revive this ailing sector which employs over 1.5 million people. There is now little hope for a good season. Instead, we look set for a repeat of last December.

What is even more concerning is the negative impact this will have on re-building traveller confidence. Most South Africans will not be able to travel freely for the foreseeable future, and for those who have an exemption, quarantine will probably be re-instated in most destinations, which is a big deterrent for travellers.

Most importantly, the long-lasting effects on South Africa as a travel destination brand is yet to be seen.

As it stands currently, travel is banned from South Africa to the following destinations:

Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Maldives, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey UAE, United Kingdom and United States.