South Africa finally came off the UK’s red list in early October after essentially being closed off to Brits since December 2020.
Having lived in Cape Town and being married to a South African we were itching to visit friends and family and from a professional perspective, I was keen to reconnect with our members and host a networking event.
Flights with our partner airline Ethiopian Airlines were booked, venue for our networking event secured and plans for a 10-day holiday made.
I arrived in Cape Town last Saturday (20 November) grateful to be back in the South African sun and back “home” again – spending a very enjoyable weekend in the Cape Winelands catching up with friends and celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday before finalising plans for the networking event we were holding a few days later.
Connecting in person once again was fantastic, and the energy in the room was one of real positivity. Bookings were once again coming in; clients were keen to travel; and the light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel was bright.
In my short speech, I mentioned I felt 2022 would be a rough ride, there would be bumps in the road, but things would get substantially better and recovery was well on its way. It was smiles all round, and I felt the world had started turning again with normal service beginning to resume once again.
Fast forward a couple of days to Thursday (25 November) and out in the Winelands once again to celebrate my birthday this time, again a wonderful day and as we were driving back into Cape Town, we commented on the very low Covid numbers in South Africa as they were announced on the radio and didn’t think too much about the discovery of a new variant.
As it was my birthday and we were on holiday, I turned off my phone that evening, only to look at it early the following morning to find a flurry of news alerts, emails and messages from friends, family and industry colleagues.
The messages followed a similar pattern – ‘Have you seen the news?’ What are you going to do?’ How are you getting home?’
My heart sank, not just for the impact on my holiday but for the enormous impact on the African tourism industry and all of those connected to it.
After making a large (and strong) pot of coffee it was time to start running through the options.
Stay in South Africa and enjoy the rest of our holiday as planned then work out how to return home; leave South Africa as soon as possible for another African destination and head there for 10 days prior to coming back to the UK; get to Europe and have 10 days there prior to coming back home or try to get straight back home on a flight that day.
As we have dogs, staying in South Africa for an unknown period of time was not an option for us, even though we both have residency rights and the thought of having to enter a quarantine hotel was far from appealing, so we needed to make arrangements to get home as soon as possible one way or another.
I felt other African countries would be added to the red list in swift succession (which sadly turned out to be true), so we needed to try and get off the continent right away if we were to get back home without having to spend close to £4,000 for a quarantine hotel.
After a quick zoom call with the chair, managing director and president of the African Travel & Tourism Association, I spoke to Ethiopian Airlines’ UK team to see what they could do to get us on Friday’s flight out via Addis Ababa to London and proceeded to pack our bags ready for a quick departure if necessary.
About an hour later we got confirmation of our seats and we headed for the airport immediately.
We arrived to find long queues and an air of tension with people trying to get out while they could. Whilst queuing to check in, we completed our Passenger Locator Forms.
Then, looking at my emails, I saw our new tickets had been issued out of Johannesburg, my original departure point – but we were in Cape Town. In the urgency to get everything sorted I had forgotten to tell the Ethiopian team that I was still in Cape Town. Another urgent call to Ethiopian in London who managed to get us two seats out of Cape Town and a confirmation that we could check in, get our boarding passes issued and head through security.
The relief that we were going home and not going to need to enter hotel quarantine was huge.
Now we needed to arrange for arrival, update the house sitter who had been looking after our dogs that we were coming home early, and try to get hold of Heathrow parking to change the booking so we could pick up the car in the morning to drive home. After 40 minutes on hold whilst boarding the aircraft I gave up trying to get hold of them so called upon my colleagues in London to help.
The flight from Cape Town to Addis Ababa was completely full and included a group who had arrived in Cape Town that morning on British Airways from London – something I’m sure they had not expected for their holiday in South Africa.
Passengers were connecting in Addis Ababa via a number of European gateways including Vienna and Frankfurt to get into London ahead of the red list shutters coming down.
Connecting through the recently upgraded Addis Ababa Bole International was smooth and straightforward even though there was some confusion around if a negative PCR test was required but after showing completed PLFs and vaccination certification we boarded.
Again, this flight was completely full of passengers who had fled in a similar way to us from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Windhoek and a number of other southern African destinations to get in ahead of restrictions.
It was a busy morning at Heathrow with close to two-hour queues to clear immigration where we were told, once again, about our self-isolation obligations.
Whilst we were in Addis Ababa, I had received email confirmation from my colleagues in London that our car would be there to be picked up and we were able to head straight home.
On arrival we were surprised to find our NHS-provided PCR tests which we need to take on Day 2 were here, ready and waiting for us and after the stress of the preceding 36 hours we were very relieved to be back home and happy that we had been able to call on the help and support of the Ethiopian team in London to make the necessary changes to our flights.
South Africa’s domestic Covid protocols are strict, and mask wearing is mandatory in any public spaces. Hand sanitiser is at the entrance to every shop or public building, and on entry to a restaurant or hotel you have your temperature taken.
Covid is being taken very seriously. In addition to this, they have a world-leading scientific community who have picked up and reported the variant to the world.
The UK government has reacted very swiftly – some might say too swiftly – but in the past, they have been accused of not reacting swiftly enough, so what is right?
Now I hope that it’s just the pause button that has been pressed and the global scientific community will be able to quickly undertake the necessary research, specifically around vaccine efficacy, and determine that the new Omicron variant does not pose a greater risk to communities around the world than the risk posed by existing variants.
Then, based on that knowledge, the restrictions will be eased once again, and the African travel community can start on rebuilding.
What cannot be changed however is the enormous dent to consumer confidence that this sudden change to the travel restrictions has caused.
As a frequent traveller, the need to make sudden and challenging changes to plans in order to get home was an extremely stressful experience. Any traveller who had booked their trip independently and not used a good tour operator or travel agent would have been left to their own devices.
Those who had made the wise decision to book their trip through reputable trade channels using a travel professional would have at least had them to call on but there are only ever a finite amount of seats on an aircraft and only a finite number of flights operating, so we consider ourselves some of the lucky few who managed to get home before the gates closed.
I will be back in Africa again as soon as I can and will do all I can to get travel to southern Africa moving again as quickly as possible.
Chris Mears is managing director of Experience Africa Events
