17/08/2021
It has taken me a long time to decide if I should post this, or not. I am well aware of the controversy that a post like this could create, however, please hear me out.
I have spent the better part of 30 years building my career in hospitality and tourism. Nearly 20 years ago I started Atlantic Marina.
My company employs 17 staff members, it used to be 20, but we have sadly had to let staff go. The rest of our jobs (as the owner of the business, this includes me) continue to hang in the balance due to the lack of tourism in our country. We continue to work week by week, one month at a time, without any idea when things may begin to ‘normalise’. It has been devastating watching my life’s work crumble, and telling staff I can’t carry on employing them, and asking my current staff to work 10 times harder for a much reduced salary, so that we can save the business and all have jobs at the end of this.
Local business is just not enough to sustain the industry, and whilst we are so grateful for South Africans supporting us, and so many others when they have taken a holiday, the lack of international travel will just see so many more companies closed, and so many more job losses. I have seen many of my colleagues in the industry, who have been in business as long as I have, who have had to close their doors permanently. It is gut wrenching that decades of hard work, long hours, no holidays, and so much more, has been and continues to be taken away by this.
Our skies need to open to the world, and the world needs assurance that we can do so, with their, and our, health being the top most priority.
The simple truth is this;
Our skies will not open unless we vaccinate. It is not a silver bullet, but it is certainly the only way out of this horror movie that we have at our disposal at present.
The overseas news tells us that only when we are about 40% of the population is fully vaccinated, will they consider lifting restrictions. We are just over 10% at this point.
7 500 000 (seven and a half million) – that is the amount of people that are directly, or indirectly supported by the hospitality/tourism industry. That is more than 10% of the entire population of South Africa.
The effects of being shut down/partially open have been enormous, and people continue to lose their jobs, which in turn means they cannot feed their families, and they cannot get a roof over their heads. I cannot stress how bad it is, I get calls nearly everyday from job seekers, desperate, crying, and there is nothing I can say to them, I cannot offer any hope of employment.
From restaurants, hotels, other accommodation, tour companies, booking agents, curio shops, to the ladies and gents selling their African art at the entrance of places like Cape Point. The ripple effect is far too enormous to even know where to begin to understand just how many people depend on a thriving tourism industry, and we had one.
This is not a vaccine debate, this is simply me asking you to think about getting the vaccine, to hear it from a hospitality employers’ mouth, to understand the knock on effect that will continue to who knows when if people don’t get vaccinated.
Our only hope is that you get your vaccine, it is simply our only hope.
There are very few people in this country that don’t know someone who works in the hospitality/tourism/tour/events/film (another endless list), please do it for them, for us.
The sooner we get the population vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to work, to salaries that actually pay our bills, to some stability in our jobs and businesses.
If you took the time to read this, I thank you. If even just one of you have an impact on someone who is vaccine hesitant, I will take that as a win.
Geraldine Dahl
CEO of Atlantic Marina
