Chinese authorities have commended South Africa on how it successfully managed to contain the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, according Supra Mahumapelo, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism.
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism and Portfolio Committee on Health received a briefing on Tuesday from the Consul General of China on the impact of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation.
The Chinese market remains one of the significant markets for South Africa, said Mahumapelo
“The country receives approximately 100 000 Chinese tourists per annum who usually travel as groups and stay longer – and their stay contributes to the tourist spend and GDP,” said Mahumapelo.
“With the increased number of tourists from China, the committee has previously urged South African Tourism to develop a dedicated strategy to harness the tourists from China.”
According to Al Jazeera, the coronavirus is spreading in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.
More deaths have been reported in Italy, while South Korea on Wednesday said an 11th person had died of the disease there. The country now has at least 1,146 cases of coronavirus after 169 more infections were confirmed, most of them in and around the city of Daegu.
Mahumapelo said South Africa has been fortunate that it has not received any report of confirmed cases since the outbreak of the virus.
“This is due to the high vigilance and measures in place at the ports of entry into South Africa,” he said.
“Due to the collegial relationship between SA and the People’s Republic of China’s tourism authorities, there was a group en-route to SA from Madagascar who were turned back due to some members of the group having a fever.”
(Compiled by Charles Molele)
