THE Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus has decimated the tourism industry worldwide, and Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy admits the past year has tested him immensely.
“A year later we are a lot more circumspect as an industry. We have seen major job losses over the last 12 months. We’ve seen many businesses close down, especially the SMMEs within tourism. We’ve seen a further negative perception of the destination with the naming of a SA variant.
“I think also as CEO I am trying to not only lead an industry but also keep the industry and my team motivated and committed to the recovery as well as picking up the pieces of a very fragmented and destroyed sector,” he said. “As someone who’s been privileged enough to travel extensively, I even miss the things that I used to hate about travelling. I even miss sitting between flights when you’ve got a delay and you’re just chilling somewhere in a different destination chatting to people.
How do people still believe this? It boggles the mind.