The tourism and hospitality industry must maintain health and safety protocols to stay open.

This was emphasised by Tourism Specialist, Gillian Saunders and CEO of Fedhasa, Lee Zama, during a webinar hosted by Africa Travel Week earlier this week, where panellists highlighted that the continued enforcement of health and safety protocols was essential to the survival of tourism.

“More than the currency of trust, they are actually the framework in which we have been able to relax our travel restrictions,” said webinar moderator and founder of Big Ambitions, Natalia Rosa.

Zama pointed out that there was still work to be done in educating tourism and hospitality consumers on the importance of abiding by all protocols. “We are actually working on programmes to educate consumers, because we need to protect our sector,” she said, explaining that poor consumer behaviour could be damaging to the industry.

Both Saunders and Zama urged the industry to invest in the ‘Travel Safe, Eat Safe’ app. “It is a business management tool,” said Saunders, explaining that users should leverage the app’s capabilities and shouldn’t be concerned about the app’s privacy and security. She said it met all the necessary security protocols and was in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act.

By paying for use of the app, operators had access to several features through which they could showcase the health and safety protocols of their business, explained Zama. “The app provides a very broad support for the industry.” She said it could be used to log guests’ details and reduced overall contact.