When President Cyril Ramaphosa suggested in his June 17 announcement that the easing of level 3 regulations would extend to leisure travel, elation in the industry soared.
However, the gazette published over a week later was worryingly thin on details, stating only that “a person may leave his or her place of residence to travel for leisure purposes as allowed under alert level 3”. In the absence of clarity, the Tourism Business Council of SA said it interpreted the regulations to be that “formally accredited and licensed accommodation” would be allowed to operate for intra-provincial leisure travel.
“Until we have written confirmation to the contrary, we are entitled to this interpretation and will operate within the regulations we have received,” said the council's CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivenghwa.