Cape Town – The Covid-19 pandemic has had such a severe impact on tourism that authorities say visitor numbers dwindled to like 30 years ago when South Africa barely registered on the international travel map.
Meanwhile, SA Tourism said 50 000 tourism businesses had either temporarily or permanently closed.
The latest report released by Statistics SA into traveller movements showed that for December, when compared to the previous year’s figures, arrivals for foreign travellers dropped by a staggering 82.1% from more than 1.5 million in 2019 to about 280 000.
Numbers of South Africans travelling in and out of the country also declined, with arrivals of locals…