Tour operators in South Africa consider unfair and hasty the decision of several countries to ban people from South Africa after the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus, as it could have a disastrous impact on the entire economy.

According to Richard de la Rey, one of the tour operators in South Africa, the blocking of flights is just an instinctive, premature decision, because, "we still don't know anything about the new variant, but they have already thought the worst."

Taking the same view, Andre Van Kets, another safari tour operator, says that the news comes as a "shock", since the tourism sector had already regained strength since the resumption of flights in October between Britain and South Africa.

"The willingness of travelers to board a plane was enormous. The number of reservations was impressive. We were really optimistic," Van Kets said.

The B.1.1.529 variant, called omicron by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is potentially very contagious and has multiple mutations, has been detected in South Africa. The announcement was made on Thursday and scientists have no information yet on the effectiveness of vaccines against this mutation.

So far, several countries, including Italy, Germany, France, Singapore, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United States have already decided to suspend flights from southern African countries.