Tshivhengwa emphasised that the tourism industry is very important for SA and it was - even before the coronavirus pandemic - already facing challenges due to cancellations and fewer forward bookings. We must ensure our marketing strategy is ready and we are friendly to businesses.' Every other country will be marketing itself too so we must look at things like introducing e-visas to make it easier for visitors to come here.

'One of the biggest things we must think of now is about our post corona interventions.

As an industry we realise that if we can contain the virus now, we should be able to come back to the market even stronger when the crisis is over,' he said. 'We will follow whatever the Department of Health advises us to do as an industry. He said such measures taken could include following hygiene guidelines and protocols when someone is suspected of having the virus. We will be part of the solution and ensure we protect our employees and guests.' 'Yes, it will impact the tourism industry, but this is a time calling for extraordinary measures. We are all in it together,' said Tshivhengwa. 'As the tourism industry, we welcome the president's announcements and we believe it will go a long way to contain the virus. Tshivhengwa points out that 1.5 million people are employed in SA's tourism industry. He commented on President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring a national state of disaster on Sunday evening following the outbreak of the coronavirus in South Africa. South Africa's tourism industry is ready to play its part to make sure those throughout the value chain protect staff and tourists alike, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA), told Fin24 on Monday. We call for a close cooperation between the industry and the government and encourage strong inter-governmental cooperation to minimise the impact on the travel and tourism industry,' says ASATA CEO Otto de Vries. 'In what can be described as one of the biggest crises the South African travel industry has ever experienced, it is crucial for calm to prevail at this time. The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) has called for calm as the travel industry faces an unprecedented crisis following the travel restrictions imposed by the government. We will look closely at the impact to try and quantify it.' 'We are going to bleed heavily and already many events have been cancelled, impacting the tourism industry even further.

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