South Africa remains on the travel ‘red list’ for the UK and several European countries, despite a robust vaccination drive, and as the most visited city in the country, Cape Town has suffered greatly as a result.
In response to this and as a way of showing the world that the home of Table Mountain is just as safe and beautiful to visit as it has ever been, Cape Town Tourism and the City of Cape Town are leading the charge to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
To incentivise vaccinations, Cape Town Tourism joined forces with Vodacom, City Sightseeing ‘Red Bus’ and other organisations to let ‘vaxxed’ individuals explore some of the city’s finest attractions at reduced prices.
The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, Alderman James Vos said that: “We are urgently encouraging as many Capetonians as possible to get vaccinated so that we can save the thousands of jobs and businesses that are at risk,” bearing in mind that travel and tourism account for 8.6% of the economy’s output and 9.2% of the jobs in the country.
“We’re hoping that both Jobs4Jabs and Jabs4Tourism galvanise people into protecting themselves and others against Covid-19. A higher vaccination rate will show the world that Cape Town is capable of hosting visitors from across the globe safely,” Alderman Vos adds.
CEO of Cape Town Tourism, Enver Duminy said that ‘fake news’ and misinformation has been the culprit in terms of vaccination-hesitancy, adding that “being on all these red lists is dealing major damage to Cape Town’s economy.”
In the same vein, Managing Executive for Vodacom Western Cape Region, Carol Hall explained that the government has gone to great lengths to source vaccines, but reports show that vaccination centres are standing empty and this is very worrisome as it will further delay efforts to revive the local economy which has been hit hardest by Covid.
“As a responsible corporate citizen, we would like to add our voice to the many appeals coming from various stakeholders and plead with all South Africans to get vaccinated,” Hall said.
Cape Town Tourism has also partnered with some of the Mother City’s most-loved celebrities who are adding their voices to the campaign in a series of videos. Local favourites including the likes of comedians, Marc Lottering and Mel Jones, cricket star, JP Duminy, radio personalities, Tracey Lange and Deon Bing, and musicians Chad Saaiman and Acoustic Element, will share why they chose to be vaccinated and what being protected from the virus means to them.
“The idea behind these videos is to bring hope, inspiration and humour to South Africans in these hard times, but more importantly to place the spotlight on the urgent need to increase vaccination rates to kick-start tourism. By sharing these videos, we will encourage locals to love Cape Town by getting themselves vaccinated,” says Enver Duminy. These videos will be shared on Love Cape Town’s social media channels over the next month.
In the words of Marc Lottering, “The pandemic has hit us hard, workwise. All of us getting the jab will help in a big way. I need to get back to work. I owe my brother money.”
Widely recognised as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, there isn’t much standing between the Mother City hosting throngs of local and international guests again. It’s already slated to be the staging ground for the first mass participation event, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, in the country since South Africa went into lockdown. The closer and faster the city can get to a highly vaccinated populace, the more jobs and revenue it can produce, Cape Town Tourism says.
Picture: Supplied