Mboweni warns of impact of a 2nd Covid-19 on tourism
Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni has warned against a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic saying it could have a dire impact on the country’s tourism industry.
Mboweni was briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee into Finance on Thursday afternoon.
He says a second wave of the pandemic will impact severely on the President’s Economic and Recovery program.
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“We were hopeful that what would make a significant contribution to the recovery process is tourism and with Germany and France seeing a resurgence of Covid-19, will cause problems for our tourism industry,” said Mboweni.
“God forbid there should not be a second wave in South Africa because if there is, that tourism thing is dead and the economic and recovery programme will be found wanting because most of the things and items there will be negatively affected.”
The tourism sector, which contributes over 2% to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the hardest hit since the beginning of the lockdown.
However, with lockdown level 1 now allowing for domestic travel the sector is slowly starting to pick up.
