Inbound industry association, SATSA, has welcomed the decision to take South Africa – and several other Southern African countries – off its high risk list.
This is effective from Sunday (September 19), according to a statement from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which serves as Germany’s public health institute.
“Germany has followed the data and rightly reopened travel with South Africa, recognising that the COVID-19 transmission risk is no higher in South Africa than in any of the other countries to which it has opened,” said CEO of SATSA, David Frost.
“Given that Germany is one of our key inbound international source markets and we are about to enter our summer season, we are hopeful that South Africa can position itself as a favourable post-pandemic destination in that market, based on their demand for low-density travel experiences, wide-open spaces, good weather, etc. This latest move by the German Government makes it even easier for travellers to decide to visit South Africa.”
Frost added that SATSA looked forward to the same courtesy being afforded by the UK Government when they make the announcement regarding changes to their traffic light system. “South Africa deserves to be rewarded for empirically demonstrating that we are safe,” he said.
Being taken off the high-risk list means tourists arriving back in Germany from South Africa no longer have to quarantine.
Quarantines have been highlighted by Iata as a major barrier to travel.
Other SADC countries that were removed from the high risk list are:
- Botswana
- Eswatini
- Malawi
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Seychelles, Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya remain on the high-risk list.
Classification as a risk area is the result of a joint analysis and decision-making process by the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.
Source market insight
Read Tourism Update’s source market recovery insight article on the German market HERE.
