When Khimbini Hlongwane spent most of the savings on the deposit for a new minibus for his small safari tour company in February, it seemed like a safe bet. His income had doubled in the previous year, and US, British, and Brazilian tourist bookings hoping to catch a glimpse of elephants, giraffes, and lions at the popular Kruger National Park in South Africa were up.
Now, with borders closed and airlines grounded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the multibillion-dollar safari industry in Africa is unraveling and he can no longer afford the payments on the new 21-seater, which sits gathering dust in the parking lot.
“It hasn’t moved since the day we bought it,” Says Hlongwane, who was forced to quit paying his five employees ‘ salaries. “We could’ve been using that money to survive right now.”
From Kenya’s Masai Mara to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, rural communities that rely on safaris for revenue see their livelihoods and dreams shattered. Hundreds of thousands of people, let alone their dependents, rely on the sector.
A slowdown in tourist dollars has hit hard on conservation projects. Just as lockdowns ease countries around the world, game parks, lodges and travel agencies face a bleak future.
According to an estimate by SafariBookings, the safari industry generates around US$ 12.4 billion in annual revenues for South Africa , Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania Uganda and Zambia — the top wildlife tourism destinations in Africa.
However, this month ‘s online safari travel platform survey of more than 300 tour operators showed that nearly 93 per cent reported a drop in bookings of at least 75 per cent due to the pandemic.
Cancelations have spiked too, most said.
Throughout March, Leon Plutsick’s Distinctly Africa lodge was complete at the Manyeleti private game reserve bordering Kruger National Park.
Today his employees are sitting at home and his unstaffed kitchen was ransacked by baboons.
“We’re getting to a point where we have to ask ourselves: ‘How long do we carry on?’” he said. “A lot of us are living on reserves just to survive.”
Plutsick was not alone in this issue.
A survey conducted last month by the local tourism agency of nearly 500 businesses in the Kruger Lowveld district — South Africa’s safari heartland — found that 90 percent believed they wouldn’t survive even if international borders opened immediately.
More than two-thirds of these have laid off staff.
The shortage of tourist dollars is pushing wildlife projects across Africa to make cuts, and over and above the human cost, conservationists worry that rising poverty in rural communities hit by COVID-19 could fuel a wave of poaching.
In South Africa, three popular game parks have dehorned dozens of rhinos as a preventive measure, hoping it would make them less attractive targets for poachers.
Around half of the residents in Mabarhule, a community at the edge of Kruger National Park, were already unemployed before the pandemic.
Freelance workers like Sipho Nkosi — a tour guide and father of four who normally make around 550 rand (US$ 33) per tour — find themselves without a safety net.
“We’d saved some money, but it’s running out, so we’ll start starving,” Nkosi said, standing outside a half-completed community hall that was being constructed with donations from visitors.
The Madilika Craft Center sits so close to the Kruger National Park boundary that lions can be heard roaring in the distance at times.
A layer of dust covered the women’s cooperative’s pink walls, which closed when the private game lodges, where it sold its traditional beaded jewelry Xitsonga, closed in March.
With her income gone, cofounder Jane Mashele hoped to feed her four orphaned grandchildren with sweet potatoes and spinach in her garden will suffice.
“We started the center because we were tired of sitting at home with no jobs,” she said. “This is terrible.”
In South Africa, which has reported most of any African nation’s COVID-19 cases, South African Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane told parliament last month that up to 600,000 jobs would be at risk if the sector remained shut down until September.
Aid interventions by governments — such as the offer of 50,000 rand one-time grants to small tourism companies from South Africa — would do nothing to reduce the losses, some operators have said.
Faced with the looming financial calamity, South Africa’s Tourism Business Council — the industry lobby group — is pushing for a resumption of international tourism as early as September.
With the peak of the pandemic still predicted to be months away on most of the continent, that seems improbable.
Instead, the government of South Africa has said regional and international tourism is expected only to resume next year.
Also, Kenya, Namibia and Rwanda remain closed to international visitors, while tourists are allowed in Zambia but face a two-week quarantine upon arrival. Tanzania has dropped the quarantine conditions and invites visitors from outside.
One East African tour operator said foreign travelers might be discouraged by the threat of quarantines when they return home even if restrictions were relaxed.
Meanwhile, for one, South Africa hopes domestic visitors will be able to drive the first phase of a recovery. National parks in South Africa are now opening to self-driving safaris.
Overnight visits and journeys across provincial borders, however, remain prohibited. Even if permitted, some operators worry that local visitors will not be sufficient to save their businesses.
“To open for two or four or six people, is it actually worth it?” Plutsick asked. “I’ll just be digging myself a bigger hole.”
