What we’re all about:motivational experiences Why we do it? Business results!

By Tes Proos, president of Site Africa

Early March 2020, South African travel companies, DMCs and PCOs were still signing contracts, paying deposits and confirming new business. We were encouraging people travel to South Africa as we were Covid-19-free. That was two months ago. Look at us now.

No-one saw this coming and the once-thriving tourism, events and hospitality industry was shaken to the core. The subsequent financial and emotional chaos ripped through the tourism communities and the end appears to be nowhere near in sight.

That said, it has been encouraging to see how the industry has rallied together to try and make sense of everything. The sheer shock of realising one has no income for the foreseeable future is paralysing, especially for those with families to support. There has been an upsurge of leadership and community support which goes a long way in helping individuals focus and #staystrong for another day.

The amount of webinars have everybody “Zoomed” out. However, we’ve had to accept that this is going to be the way we do things for a while. We may be locked down, but at least we still have communication. The data companies hit the jackpot with this pandemic!

Now, how are we going to get the tourism industry out of this quagmire? The reality is that nothing can return to normal until a vaccine has been developed and properly distributed. But can the industry afford such a hard knock?

The South African Minister of Tourism announced that domestic tourism will not return until December 2020, and international tourism only by February 2021. The sheer knock-on affect this will have on the economy is unthinkable. Millions of jobs are already lost, and many hotels, restaurants and venues simply will not be able to reopen. What are the positives? For one thing, not the entire country is riddled with Covid-19 infections. There are communities with no infections and those should be allowed to start trading again, naturally with all the health safety protocols observed. There is no reason why travel inbetween provinces should not be allowed, with reasonable restrictions in place.

Use, for example, country lodges in Tulbagh and Cederberg – a mere 3-hour drive from Cape Town. Why can these establishments not be permitted to operate again for domestic tourists?

More positives include the low number of infections in our neighbouring countries, that are slowly but surely starting to bring tourism back. Great news is that Air Namibia has started flying domestically again. Zimbabwe and Namibia are starting to reopen certain hotels from 1 June 2020. Let’s watch this space for further regional developments.

Of course, there is a big question mark for the revival of incentive travel. We need to remind our clients that incentive travel is not a holiday – it’s a well-earned motivational tool. Those sales teams need to perform at their peak to rework their targets. Much business has been lost due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, so companies and individuals will have less money to spend. This is a great time for smaller boutique hotels and guest houses to benefit from incentive travel. Apart from a pricing point, smaller properties also lend themselves to automatic socialdistancing with a further advantage that they can be booked out exclusively.

In the meantime, we are all working really hard at finding solutions across the board. Let’s focus on what we can do – not what we can’t!

#staysafe #travelsoon.