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City plans to reboot Cape tourism industry post-COVID-19 pandemic
15 May 2020
Cape Town – The City of Cape Town is fully focused on making sure the Mother City remains a favourite holiday destination amongst tourists post Covid-19.
Tourism continues to be a key role player in Cape Town, says Mayco member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, James Vos, who added that the pandemic had had a negative impact on the City’s tourism industry.
“Globally people have adjusted to the new normal, making us reconsider the way we want to do things”, he said, “The Tourism landscape will change, and we must find those opportunities and act responsibly in implementing relief and recovery.”
According to the latest research done by the World Travel and Tourism Council, more than 100 million jobs have been lost worldwide in the travel and tourism sector due to the pandemic. 30% higher than an estimate in February. The industry body expects that tourism-related job losses could be as many as 7.6 million throughout Africa. An estimation by the City shows that the country’s tourism industry had provided jobs for more than 700 000 by 2019.
Vos added that his team, along with the economic unit at the City, had done preliminary modelling, which indicated that Cape Town was facing from 100 000 to 130 000 job losses and a decline in its GDP of about 8%, Increasing its unemployment rate by 4 to 5%.
“We remain hopeful that we will be able to recover some of these jobs once we finally emerge from this crisis and get our city working at full steam again,” said Vos.
He said he had established an economic task team to devise an action plan for Cape Town. The plan comprises three stages: response, adaptation and recovery, but as the City was still in the early stages of the pandemic, the primary focus would be on response.
Chief Executive of Cape Town Tourism, Enver Duminy said,“It’s been very challenging for everyone and the tourism industry has been particularly hit.
“We were, until a few months ago, known as the golden goose. Now the goose is infected. We are still engaging with the industry. There is still a lot that needs to be done.”
Originally written by Marvin Charles, IOL
