From SANParks to lodges to safari operators and more, the recent decision by the UK to place South Africa back on its red list for travel has severely impacted all.
Taking a look specifically at the Lowveld’s market, the COO of KLCBT, Linda Grimbeek, said it was experiencing cancellations by the hundreds of thousands of rands.
“Our safari industry, which only just started getting a few bookings, is sitting with 100% cancellations.”
Grimbeek said KLCBT understands the immense political pressure under which foreign leaders make their decisions in order to protect their own countries’ citizens and economies.
“There is no roadmap for this, thus you can expect them to act rash rather than slow.”
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She said the immediate statistics do indicate, however, that they probably overreacted, so they are expecting a turnaround of the restrictions.
“This, unfortunately, will not bring back the bookings for December. Clients book ahead of time…