“It says, let us unite in fighting Covid-19 together. Don’t travel now, so you can travel later. We must make short term sacrifices today for long term recovery,” Sisa Ntshona, CEO of SAT told Fin24 on Friday.

He said the tourism industry is very hard hit by the impact of the spreading coronavirus pandemic, but it could also be the first to recover once Covid-19 is managed.

Tourism is not classified as an essential industry, and thus falls under the lockdown conditions.
“The reality is that certain businesses will not survive, and jobs will be lost. This pandemic will, however, change the way we do business; looking at technology and digital solutions, how we work with the collective industry on driving business and leisure tourism,” cautioned Ntshona.

“While we are going through this crisis now and looking at the short-term immediate requirements we have to glean at the long term and start to put together a recovery plan. It will be comprehensive and shared throughout the sector. It will be a blueprint on how South African as a tourism destination repositions itself, both globally and domestically.”

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