The reality dawns slowly.
21 days of lockdown are extended to 35, and we realize that even when this milestone is reached, there is no return to normal.
We have no idea what normal will look like. Various versions of lockdown will be our reality until a vaccine for COVID19 is found, or the virus magically disappears. Welcome to 2020.
There are so many questions we can’t answer yet.
How many airlines will survive the pandemic?
What will international flights cost?
When will South Africa re open its borders to key source markets? (I certainly don’t want to mingle with visitors from the USA, UK, and most of Europe yet)
But the tourism industry in South Africa is worth more than gold, and employs close to 1,5 million people. We have to find ways to get it back up and running, albeit differently.
The domestic tourist should be new target market for every tourism business.
When lockdown is over there will not be plane loads of visitors landing at our airports, and no sane person is keen to board a cruise ship anytime soon.
Tourism will restart with locals.When lockdown is over, people will be cautious. Domestic air travel will take time, but day trips, experiences or a few days away, accessible by car, will be appealing.
We want to get together with family and friends again.
We crave time in nature, wide open spaces, and a change of scenery, but we want to feel safe.
All visitor attractions and those in the hospitality industry need to adapt to meet the needs of the new domestic tourist.
Safety first, ease of access and value for money. Money earned in South African Rands, not euros, dollars or yen.
Access control, temperature checks, social distancing, ample hand washing and sanitizer opportunities and contact free transactions will be the new criteria on which clients will base their decisions.
It is not an ideal scenario for any business, but some paying guests are better than none.
It is time to do the math’s and find your magic number, how many visitors do you need to make re opening viable? Use this number to reverse engineer how you will do business going forward.
Get creative and look at your tourism offering with new eyes. What might have been a drawback could now be you main selling point.
What will visitors want?
As a travel writer I get around a lot, but after lockdown, what would appeal to me?
Small towns, remote locations, bush breaks and nature activities are high on my list.
A restaurant that offers take aways, a picnic basket or well-spaced seating with ample ventilation. Staff in masks, temperature check and hand sanitizing on entering, and contact free transactions.
I am wary of flying for now, but a road trip would be great.
A visit to a cultural experience, beer, wine or gin tasting where social distancing is easy and well controlled and perhaps information is done via an audio guide app on my phone, allowing me to maintain a distance I am comfortable with.
I want to feel that any place I visit or stay at is taking my safety, and the safety of their staff seriously.
What does excite me is the opportunity to rediscover South Africa. To revisit places I love, and experience others that have been on my “must see” list for years.
We can start by experiencing our immediate neighbourhoods and being tourists in our own cities and areas. We can spend our precious Rands on local small businesses and make a difference. As we get braver, we have nine glorious provinces to discover and enjoy.
The South Africa that went into lockdown will not be the same South Africa that emerges from it.
We have been given an opportunity to reset normal.
By supporting our tourism industry, we create jobs. Jobs bring hope and promise a better future.
It is in our hands to make sure that the new South Africa is a better one for every single citizen.
What are your thoughts?
I would love to hear your concerns and ideas around future travel, and any tips for those running a tourism business. Let’s share and work together to make South Africa #TourismStrong again.
3 Comments
Hello Di
Thank you for starting a thought-provoking conversation.
Our lives won’t resume before we have a widely available, affective vaccine, and that’s not something that is good to happen anytime soon – as I understand from the reports.
A question: will those communities along the road-trip route welcome visitors? They/you could be a source of (re)infection and they may wish to keep non-essential visits to a minimum.
How do we deal with this? And how do businesses prepare to operate in a world of social distancing and enhanced hygiene protocols?
Wishing you and your family best wishes
Mary Tebje
Good question Mary. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the draft doc of the Alert Levels have been published for comment, and understandably, tourism does not get a look in. All we can do is pray that the rules are obeyed and we get to Level One as fast as possible.
Hi Di
Thank you for starting a though provoking discussion on how we in the tourism industry move forward after Covid-19.
Social distancing and hygiene protocols is going to be a very important step in re-opening. We will have to look at reducing seating in restaurants and tasting rooms to ensure we maintain social distancing protocols but as you stated fewer guests are better than no guests.
Partnerships and collaboration within the industry is going to be vital to ensure survival of the smaller tourism businesses.
Stay safe.
Cynthia