African safari industry is witnessing a devastating impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all the tour operators are experiencing a decline of 75 percent or more in bookings.
SafariBookings.com. conducted a survey of 443 safari tour operators to ascertain the impact that the coronavirus is having on the sector.
There was a significant increase in figure as compared to a first survey that was conducted in the beginning of March.
An operator said that things are very bad at the moment as the whole world is on lock-down and people are scared to book anything until the fear subsides and this virus is brought under control.
It was found that more than 90 percent of operators had lost at least 75 percent of bookings they normally rely upon at this time of year.
More than two-thirds of operators surveyed said that cancellations on existing bookings were up at least 75 percent while less than one per cent said it was business as usual.
One Kenyan operator received about 90 percent cancellations due to Covid-19, and no new booking requests at the moment were made.
Considering the 2018 international tourism figures from the UNWTO the safari industry is worth US$12.4 billion annually to Africa and major safari countries included Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The total international tourism receipts for these seven countries was US$15.5 billion and according to the UNWTO research paper wildlife watching tourism makes up 80 percent of the total trip sales.
Tags: African Safari
