The South African government has established a war room to address the impact on the peak international tourism season.

The country's tourism sector has been hit hard by the travel ban imposed by nearly 20 countries after the new coronavirus variant Omicron was detected in the country.

To mitigate the effects of the ban on the tourism sector, the country's tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu convened an urgent meeting with stakeholders on Tuesday.

Sisulu said that the War Room will be meeting on a regular basis to roll out and follow up on practical actions adopted by industry stakeholders to deal with the obstacles and crises that the country's tourism and hospitality sector face.

The priority is to boost domestic tourism this festive season to secure the livelihoods of people dependent on the sector.

The stakeholders outlined how the red list announcement and consequent reaction from other governments had impacted their existing and future business as South Africa enters its peak inbound international tourism period. President Cyril Ramaphosa, in an address on Sunday, described the travel ban as a knee-jerk reaction that was unfair and discriminatory, just because South African scientists had announced the discovery of Omicron first even while it already existed in several other countries as well.

Rosemary Anderson, National Chairperson of FEDHASA, concurred with this. To be locked down on a semi-regular basis and banned for international travel because of our advanced genomic sequencing capability and low vaccination rates cannot continue. We depend on tourism for jobs and livelihoods, Anderson said.

Delegates said that while scientific certainty surrounding this new variant was awaited, the impact to brand South Africa and the deep tourism value chain has been devastating. There was also a call for South Africans who had not yet been vaccinated to do so urgently as plans are put in place to boost domestic tourism.

-With agency inputs