23 March 2020 – the date our lives changed forever, in South Africa and worldwide…
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Lockdown Level 5 due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Level 5 slammed the brakes on our personal movement – zero leisure activities, closed borders, and no traveling cross provinces in South Africa. The local and international tourism industry came to an abrupt and grinding halt. This caused absolute havoc in South Africa as a country, especially in the tourism industry, with huge financial losses, job cuts and retrenchments, forced closures and bankruptcy of tourism entities, including venues, tour operators, airlines, etc.
The complete tourism value chain was in dire straits – and still is!
In our opinion, this trend will continue for years to come at different levels of lockdown restrictions. It will take years to get the industry back on its feet, many years to get foreign tourism on feasible quantum, resulting in massive losses in the local tourism industry. This is an economic pandemic in itself!
But there is something we can do…
Although lockdown eased slightly allowing traveling and leisure activities, borders were still closed. Strict limits on tourism facility capacities and “pandemic fear” negatively influence local and international tourism.
Andre Verster, the founder of LRClassic, responded swiftly and devised the Series Rally concept: – – fun events with purpose and cause!
