South Africa's warm weather, alluring beaches, award-winning safari lodges and wine experiences are just some of the tempting attractions that lure UK visitors to our shore.
However, since the UK's red list that prohibits travel to certain countries, South Africa has lost a huge travel market.
A petition by Ben Cope to remove South Africa from the travel red list has been started, with signatures slowly filling up.
The petition has already received more than 20 000 signatures.
"The government should urgently review its travel policy towards South Africa to ensure it is fully aligned with the latest scientific evidence, and therefore remove South Africa from the travel 'Red List'.
"Red list travel restrictions to southern Africa are unfair and are inflicting real social, environmental and economic hardship on families, businesses and ecosystems with no scientific justification given, and should therefore be removed," the petition states (sic).
Locally, SATSA's ‘Red List’ Lobbying Project has slowly made headway.
The campaign aims to identify and leverage areas of UK-SA interest, build confidence in South Africa’s infection control and vaccination programme, and engage in the design and operation of new health certification and vaccine passport programmes.
David Frost, the CEO of SATSA, said that current restrictions made travel to SA almost impossible and expensive.
"If South Africa does not put a concerted effort into presenting a data-driven and scientific case to the decision-makers in the UK, the likelihood is that we will remain on the ‘red list’ for the foreseeable future.
“The ‘burden of proof’ is on us to get involved proactively in the UK political and media debate and put a South African perspective into the policy discussions. Many of our competitor destinations have been actively lobbying in the media and to key decision-makers in the UK," he said in a statement.
IOL recently reported that Cape Town Tourism, among other SA organisations, was rallying their support for the cause.
The countries on UK Red List:
Afghanistan
Angola
Argentina
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Burundi
Cape Verde
Chile
Colombia
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Eritrea
Eswatini
Ethiopia
French Guiana
Georgia
Guyana
Haiti
Indonesia
Kenya
Lesotho
Malawi
Maldives
Mayotte
Mexico
Mongolia
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Réunion
Rwanda
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Tanzania
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Uruguay
Venezuela
Zambia
Zimbabwe
https://www.iol.co.za/travel/travel-news/sa-uk-red-list-battle-will-petition-encourage-removal-off-the-list-5f4dc63f-3dc2-41e7-8bae-ae7ddcda8664
Comments