Author(s): Kola Olusola Odeku
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause disruption to virtually all businesses, including the tour guide business sector. South Africa is a tourist destination country and different tourism businesses thrived in the country until the outbreak of the pandemic which made the government implement various restrictions measures for purposes of curtailing the spread of the virus. These restrictions, ranging from different levels of lockdown, social distancing and broad regulations affect human mobility. Undoubtedly, the tour guide business thrives where there is free movement. The various restrictions imposed by the government have a huge impact on tourism as a whole. It is pertinent to point out that while scholars have written on various aspects of the impacts of COVID-19 on human beings, businesses etcetera regarding South Africa, there is a paucity of information on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism operation’s businesses and livelihood. It is against this lacuna that this paper looks at the impact of the pandemic on the tour guide business particularly with regard to how the lockdown measures have impacted the business of tour guides, their economy, jobs, livelihoods etcetera.