“This comes just as the market was recovering strongly, with the Europe to South Africa air capacity up by 140% on the previous year for the same period – and the UK to South Africa market up by 355%.” says Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing & Sales at Mabrian.
Further to European countries announcing immediate entry restrictions on travellers coming from South Africa, leading travel intelligence provider Mabrian has analysed the potential impact on the South African tourism economy and the European tour operators and travel agents selling the destination.
Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing & Sales at Mabrian comments: “As of right now there are 334,408 air seats programmed for entry from European destinations into South Africa over the next three months — with the UK representing around 40% of that.
“That’s a potentially very big impact on the tourism recovery of South Africa – with direct flight options from the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France and Switzerland – not least as visitors from such long-haul markets often stay for longer periods and spend more overall.
“Inbound tourism service providers and hotels can often be highly dependent on one source market — having built a reputation with travellers from there — so any South African business specializing in catering for European visitors will be devestated.
“Meanwhile those European tour operators and travel agents offering holidays to South Africa will be equally hard hit. Many such companies specialize in a particular destination or type of holiday – for example those offering safari holidays – and the complete collapse of the market could be awful as they have no alternative options to fall back on.
“This comes just as the market was recovering strongly, with the Europe to South Africa air capacity up by 140% on the previous year for the same period – and the UK to South Africa market up by 355%.”
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
