Open AccessThe Politicization of COVID-19 Omicron: Southern Africa Tourism Sector
Author(s) -
Regis Musavengane
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.232
H-Index - 11
ISSN - 2223-814X
DOI - 10.46222/ajhtl.19770720.217
Subject(s) - tourism , covid-19 , pandemic , political science , injustice , development economics , social media , geography , economic growth , economics , law , virology , medicine , disease , pathology , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology
The Covid-19 virus has impacted the tourism sector heavily. The pandemic provided a fertile ground for politicians, development experts and individuals to ‘open’ up and share their emotions. In this article, discourse analysis is used to decipher the politicization of the COVID-19 Omicron variant and its impacts on the tourism Southern African tourism sector. Data is collected from the social media platforms, chiefly, Twitter. The approaches taken by countries that harshly banned travel to the Southern Africa have been described as Afrophobia, anti-scientific and fear and anti-development of the Southern African tourism sector. There is a general agreement among the voices of the participants that the strands of injustice and mistrust still exist among nations and politicians, a situation which is detrimental to tourism development.