South Africa officially reopen borders for tourism

South Africa is a tourist destination, and tourism is a crucial driver of South African’s national economy and employment of its citizen. The announcement to reopen its borders for tourism is, of course, an intriguing, exciting development for businesses in the sectors such as the land-based casino operators in the country.

The government’s airspace lockdown and movement restriction to curb the virus’s spread by implementing social distance and closed borders have had a social, economic impact on business under the tourism sector and the land-based casino operators. The tourism industry is a livelihood to land-based casino operators whose tourist arrival contributes substantially to their business.

In essence, tourism is booming, and the growth is evident, which is an important sector that contributes about 9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). While according to the World Travel and Tourism Council in 2018, the contribution of tourism directly accounted for 2.8% of real gross domestic product (GDP), which amounts to R139 billion, which was projected to grow to R145, 3 billion for 2019. The tourism sector’s indirect contribution to the economy GDP in 2018 stood at an even higher 8.2 percent, which captures the strong economic links to the demand and supply side that the sector has with other sectors of the South African economy. Besides, the tourism sector direct employment accounted for 4.2 percent of total work in the South African economy in 2018. These were projected to increase to 709 thousand jobs in 2019, while indirect tourism contribution to full employment stood at 9.2 percent for 2018. Thus, overall, this is interesting for the overall tourism sectors as the reopening of the border for tourist arrival will further propel business under these sectors, especially land-based casino operators.

Consequently, knowing full-well that the country does not allow licensed casino operators to offer online casino gambling to players. The country’s operators have been adversely affected due to the ban on online casino gambling in South Africa amid the lockdown and social distancing. It is definitely a welcome development to land-based casino operators and, generally, the tourism sector as the reopening of for tourism commenced today.

The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced the country would officially reopen borders for tourism on October 1, 2020. The reopening will include both inbound and outbound tourism, allowing nationals to travel abroad and tourist to enter. Once again, the president said, “we will gradually and cautiously ease restriction on international travel allowing travel into and out of South Africa for business, leisure and other travel with effect from October 1 today. He further said,” South Africa first shut their borders on March 27 and has been one of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19, recording the 8th highest amount of total cases in the world. However, the nation has recently flattened its curve after a strict country-wide lockdown and is now reporting the lowest new case numbers since May.

“Since South Africa sees around 17 million tourists per year, reopening borders for both inbound and outbound tourism has been a significant priority for the country and sectors under it. We are ready to open our doors again to the world and invite travelers to enjoy our mountains, our beaches, our vibrant cities, and our wildlife game parks in safety and confidence” – said Ramaphosa.

However, visitors will be required to present a PCR test’s negative result, taken no longer than 72 hours before departure.

In contrast, if the passenger fulfills the PCR testing requirement, there is no mandatory quarantine; however, if a passenger does not bring the negative PCR result, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days. All travelers will be asked to download the contact tracing alert app. As mentioned earlier, the reopening of South Africa international airspace for tourism amid the COVID-19 outbreak has harmed the tourism sector and for land-based casino operators in the country, of course, a welcome development for their business survival.

That has seen most of there operations closed down for several months, while online casino gambling is illegal for these operators to offer its customers. Most of the operators depend on tourist arrivals, though with the opening of borders. It is expected that there business to pick up over the year to mitigate the effect amid the coronavirus outbreak.

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