Evaluation of Government Responses and Measures on COVID-19 in the Tourism Sector: A Case of Tour Guides in South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to explore and evaluate the support mechanisms or measures that the South African government has put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic for tour guides within the tourism sector. This was a non-empirical study, which used an exploratory research design. The study employed document analysis to gather the data, and discourse analysis was utilized to analyze the collected data. This study findings indicate that the government responses and measures assisted numerous tour guides during the lockdown period. Furthermore, the results showed that the tourism sector continues to be severely affected as the government has only recently allowed some business travel and leisure tourism. The study recommends that the government and other tourism stakeholders place new standards to reassure domestic and international travellers' safety so that the tour guides could generate income and avoid possible business closure in this tourism sub-sector.