Seen as part of protecting the reputation of ‘brand South Africa’ amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, travel industry association, SATSA, has commended its members’ decision to waive cancellation fees for Chinese citizens.

SATSA CEO, David Frost, said that many operators were waiving cancellation fees for Chinese citizens for February and several others into March.

This follows the Chinese government implementing a force majeure preventing its citizens from travelling. This is based on ‘circumstance beyond human control’ such as natural disasters, and the spread of diseases declared as global health emergencies by the World Health Organisation.

SATSA has highlighted that other tourists, who are not Chinese citizens, have also requested that cancellation fees be waived.

The association advised that these travellers should postpone their trips to South Africa to ensure fewer financial penalties, or they will be liable for the standard cancellation fees.

Frost said the impact of waiving cancellation fee for Chinese citizens is managed. “Anecdotally, SATSA members have advised us that the forward-book for suppliers runs into several millions up to mid-2020,” he said.

“We are not aware of any members currently considering or extending waivers beyond the Chinese market. Reputational damage must be considered, but as this is a global issue, all countries will face the same reputational damage.”

Many airlines and travel suppliers have issued travel waivers and additional screening process to curb the spread of the virus.

According to SATSA, there were still no reported or suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in South Africa, with the association emphasising that the disease had had no impact on tourists to the country as no trade or travel advisories had been issued for South Africa.

Frost said the impact to South Africa thus far was not as great as those countries where China was a key source market with hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. “Current arrivals from China comprise less than 4% of the total inbound arrivals to South Africa."

South African health authorities and hospitals are on high alert and temperature screening remains in place at most international airports in South Africa. This is a routine precaution that was instituted at airports in 2010.

Any passenger found to be ill or exhibiting fever symptoms on arrival will be reviewed at airport clinics. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed that South African hospitals were prepared to deal with any coronavirus-related problems and that laboratories had facilities in place to test for the respiratory disease.

“The national Department of Health and the NICD have developed and distributed clinical guidelines and case definitions for doctors and nurses in both the public and private sectors to better detect, identify and respond to a possible 2019-nCoV case,” said Hannelie du Toit, COO of SATSA in a press statement.

The bottom line

Given the current spread of this virus and the pace and complexity of international travel, the number of cases and deaths will likely to continue to climb. We should not panic, even though we are dealing with a serious and novel pathogen. Public health teams are assembling globally. Lessons learned from other serious viruses, such as SARS and MERS, will help. As more information becomes available, public health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the US and the World Health Organization (WHO) will be sharing key information and strategies worldwide.