Cape Town’s tourism industry has lamented the loss of more than R200 million a day due to sudden cancellations of flights and accommodation bookings following the confirmation of a new Covid-19 variant.
This has been revealed after a snap survey conducted by the City and Cape Town Tourism (CTT) this week.
Economic Growth and Tourism Mayco member James Vos said about R237 million worth of December cancellations in tourism amenities were reported by various members from the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa), Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) and others tourism bodies.
Vos said there have been more than 56 000 hotel cancellations, flights had been cancelled, and 300 passengers had been stranded since Friday.
He said that off the back of a new domestic survey by CTT, before the discovery of the new variant of Covid-19, the results indicated that the majority of South Africans had a strong desire to go on vacation in the coming holidays.
