Cape Town - While global travel restrictions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic have dealt a harsh blow to the hospitality industry, a group of hotels in the Cape Winelands has seized the moment to establish a niche market for stranded international travellers.
“Stranded in the Winelands” is an initiative by three hotels situated on wine and olive farms in the greater Paarl area, which opened their doors to tourists who weren’t able to return home thanks to travel restrictions and needed a safe place to ride out the coronavirus lockdown.
De Leeuwenhof, Cascade Manor and Mountain Shadows offered them accommodation where they could isolate themselves, with all meals provided and strict sanitary and hygiene procedures in place.
Describing the business venture online, the group said they saw a disaster developing and decided to use their accommodation facilities to help. “To try save jobs and keep our spirits high, De Leeuwenhof partnered with two 'colleagues' to see if we could ‘take in’ stranded visitors, who for many reasons cannot return to their home countries," they said.
Maika Goetze of Cascade Manor said the plan was an attempt to continue providing income and work for the hotels in a very difficult time for business. “The idea is to be able to host stranded tourists and still offer them, not the Winelands experience, but an outdoor experience,” she said.
Goetze fears the slump in tourism won't end for some time after the lockdown. “It affects the livelihoods of everybody around because most of the employees are the breadwinners of their households,” she said.
“We will access (government) funds available for them, but that process takes some time.
“After (the lockdown) reality will be quite harsh, because it (business) will not return to normal soon.
“I think we will see much shorter stays and a general downturn in the industry.”
She said the uptake on the Stranded in the Winelands offering had not been "overwhelming", as they were struggling to contact tourists left stranded in Cape Town. "Sometimes we communicate (with tourists) via the embassies, but others are left to look after themselves. It’s not as easy as we thought, to find the guests."
Some tourists were able tocatch the last remaining international flights the day before lockdown began.
“The ones that are stranded now are the ones that have already booked,” she said.