Johannesburg – Businesses in the tourism industry are pleading with the government to reopen the tourism relief fund (TRF) as the industry continues to face Covid-19 headwinds.
The Department of Tourism said applications continued to stream in for TRF from hundreds of enterprises whose applications were unsuccessful when the fund was operational.
The fund was limited to only R200-million, mainly through the redirection of funds to respond to the impact of Covid-19 on small tourism enterprises whose cashflows are largely dependent on daily activities.
The funds were meant to assist with expenses towards fixed costs, operational costs, supplies and other pressure-costs items.
It aimed to provide support at R50 000 per entity. Only 4 000 businesses benefited out of the 7 284 valid applications that were submitted.
Victor Tharage, the director-general of tourism, said: “It is regrettable that while there is still a lot of demand for the funds, the department is not in a position reinstate the fund owing to the unavailability of financial resources.”
Sunday World reported in March that South Africa’s hospitality industry plunged by R15.4-billion last year, according to data from Statistics South Africa.
The data also show that income from accommodation dropped to R9.8-billion last year compared to R25.2-billion in 2019.
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