Human Interest
Ebola misconception bad for travel─── 16:55 Mon, 01 Sep 2014
Cape Town - Misconceptions about the Ebola virus are a concern to the local and international travel trade, the Tourism Business Council of SA said on Monday.
The spread of Ebola was causing panic among travellers in South Africa's key source markets, TBCSA CEO Mmatsatsi Ramawela said in a statement.
The biggest misconceptions were about how the virus was contracted and the location of the affected countries.
"The perceived risk of contracting the disease amongst tourists travelling to South Africa and other parts of the continent which are not affected by the outbreak is of particular worry for us," said Ramawela.
"Information about where the affected countries are located in relation to South Africa must be sensitively communicated since not all countries in the West Africa region are affected by Ebola," she said.
The TBCSA was satisfied with the measures authorities had put in place to prevent the virus entering South Africa.
Two weeks ago, Cabinet instituted a total travel ban for all non-citizens travelling from high-risk countries, unless the travel was absolutely essential.
South Africans who wished to travel to these countries were advised to delay doing so.
Ramawela said it was still too early to quantify the real impact of Ebola. The TBCSA and others were monitoring developments regarding the outbreak.
Sapa
