Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has provided an update on what level three lockdown means for the sector.
Tourism is the most affected sector of all sectors during the lockdown as a result of Covid-19 and, on Saturday evening, tourism Minister Kubayi-Ngubane updated the nation on what the relaxation of lockdown restrictions to level 3 meant for the sector. She explained the relief measures available for tourism businesses while also outlining the tourism activities which will be permitted from June 1, including, among others, hunting, game drives and hiking.
“The past two months have been difficult for the tourism sector. We continued to see many businesses in the sector fighting for survival and our projections showed that almost 600,000 jobs were at risk if the sector didn’t come to at least some level of operation by September 2020,” said the Minister.
"As we open up the sector, we are therefore confident that measures have been put in place to protect our employees, suppliers, tourists and all those who are involved with the sector. Where there are weaknesses as the department we have committed to work towards finding solutions together with our partners."
Meanwhile parliament released a statement last week indicating that the government still planned to reach its target of creating 21 million tourism jobs by 2030, with immediate attention being put towards focussing “on the factors affecting job losses due to businesses in the tourism sector being closed.”
