South Africa is seething over Britain’s decision to keep the country on its coronavirus “red list,” a move that means travelers must pay for pricey hotel quarantine on their return to the UK.
Renowned for its wildlife and breathtaking scenery, South Africa is struggling to recover from the crippling blow coronavirus dealt to a tourism industry that directly accounts for three percent of the nation’s economy and prior to the pandemic was one of the few employment bright spots, providing more than 700,000 jobs.
Shut off from the rest of the world for most of 2020 and then blacklisted by several governments over the discovery of the Beta variant in December, South Africa is slowly starting to see a trickle of high-paying foreign visitors as infection rates fall.
Travelers coming from Europe and the US, South Africa’s biggest tourism markets along with the UK, can currently holiday and then self-isolate at home upon return a hassle that some are prepared to take.
But the UK has kept South Africa on its red list of high-risk countries, meaning anyone arriving from South Africa is forced to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, costing more than $2,400 (2,000 euros) per person.
With more than 400,000 visitors a year in pre-pandemic times, the UK was South Africa’s biggest source of long-haul travelers, especially during the northern hemisphere winter.
