SA’s hospitality industry is ready to toast the ditching of masks indoors

SA’s hospitality industry has thrown its weight behind the national health department’s recommendation to scrap mask-wearing.

The Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa), the umbrella body for hotels, restaurants, conference centres, caterers, self-catering accommodation and guest houses, said the move to repeal regulations to stem the spread of Covid-19 is “long overdue”.

In a letter that has been doing the rounds online, health minister Joe Phaahla recommended dropping some key measures, including wearing masks, limits on gatherings and entry requirements.

The letter pointed out there has been a decline in cases, hospitalisations and deaths.

“We have been monitoring the epidemic, working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and current epidemiological analysis. The figures point towards lower infection rates and that the country has exited a recent spike of infections,” said Phaahla.

“The health department proposes that regulations on mask-wearing indoors, gathering limitations and venue entry limitations no longer need to be in place.

“The recommendations will be discussed with the cabinet in the next 48-72 hours.”

Wearing masks indoors is compulsory and there is a 50% limit on the number of people allowed in a venue if patrons are fully vaccinated or people can show negative Covid-19 tests.

Reacting to the proposed move, Rosemary Anderson, Fedhasa chair, said: “This is long overdue, considering that the reasons these regulations were instituted in the first place were to reduce pressure on our healthcare system.

“It has been clear for months that not only does Covid no longer threaten to overwhelm our hospitals, but that these regulations also have no effect on limiting Covid infections.

“The phase of the pandemic in which we find ourselves is one that sees us learning to live with Covid, like the rest of the world has been doing.”

Anderson said while tourist accommodation income is rising steadily, the industry has a long journey ahead to get to pre-Covid levels.

“The hospitality sector was among the hardest hit by regulations put in place during Covid. These regulations have continued to limit normal operations, such as venue capacity, contact tracing, etc, with restrictions of 50% capacity still in place.”

According to the tourist accommodation statistics for April 2022, issued by Stats SA, income for this sector increased 53.4% compared with April 2021.

Income from accommodation increased by 43.5% year-on-year in April 2022, the result of a 17.8% increase in the number of stay unit nights sold and a 21.8% increase in the average income per stay unit night sold.

“We have a long way to go to recover from the loss of income and jobs in the hospitality sector, but are encouraged by the steady increases we are seeing from our key source markets who can now travel to South Africa, albeit with certain restrictions, such as vaccination certificates.

The hospitality sector was among the hardest hit by regulations put in place during Covid. These regulations have continued to limit normal operation.

—  Rosemary Anderson, Fedhasa chair

“We should be doing whatever we can to encourage them to return as we prepare for our summer season.

“When one considers the catalytic potential of the tourism and hospitality sector to create jobs in areas where this is most needed, we should be doing everything we can to help it get back on its feet swiftly so it can get back to creating employment.

“Don’t delay. Adopt the health department’s recommendations so we can get back to work,” said Anderson.

Graham Wood, Sun International’s COO for hospitality, said: “We are aware of calls to repeal the current Covid-19 regulations and are hopeful for a positive outcome from the cabinet meeting [on Wednesday]. For tourism to regain lost ground and for hospitality and leisure industries to recover, we need a review of the restrictions, especially on gatherings.”

Robert More, CEO of MORE Family Collection, which owns boutique hotels and lodges throughout SA, welcomed the proposed ditching of masks.

“With unemployment sitting above 30% and hospitality being a key player in reducing this, we really need to lift all regulations and get back our lives and, more importantly, our livelihoods.”

John Loos, First National Bank’s property strategist, said the hotel sector remained under severe income pressure, “despite significant recovery off the near-zero base created at a stage of 2020 by hard lockdowns”.

“Still very weak revenue figures, while expected to continue to improve gradually as the year progresses, lead us to remain of the expectation that the hotel property market will remain under pressure.

“We have been expecting gradual improvement in 2022 on the back of Covid-19 seemingly having receded as a threat, and lockdown regulations relaxed even further from late in 2021.

“This has been supportive of a significant rise in average income per stay night following a major 2020 lockdown dip, albeit not yet back to pre-Covid-19 levels.

“We would expect hotel occupancy and income improvements to continue in 2022, on the assumption that everyone remains freer to move around as vaccine rollouts progress across the world, as well as in SA, and the virus threat recedes.

“But the financial impact from the 2020 recession on households and businesses alike lingers, with more recent pressure being added by higher fuel and overall price inflation, and resultant interest rate hiking. These factors are seen as a drag on the pace of recovery in what is a non-essential spending category for many. So progress back to pre-Covid-19 income levels for this property class may not yet happen in 2022.”