The South African tourism industry has developed comprehensive protocols for the operation of all types of tourism businesses and facilities in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protocols align with the latest Disaster Management and Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL) Regulations, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD), and Department of health (DoH) guidelines and advice, as well as the Health & Safety Act. The protocols will be updated as required on an on-going basis in line with the risk adjusted economic activity allowed and the pandemic status.
These protocols will be revised to facilitate increased capacity and recovery of the tourism industry and should only remain in force for as long as the declaration of a national disaster published in Government Gazette 43096 on 15 March 2020 remains in force.
C4 Photo Safaris PTY LTD is a facilitator of safaris; we provide clients with travel and/or other services either itself or acting as agents for principals engaged in or associated with the travel industry. C4 Photo Safaris represent such principles as agents only accordingly and accept no liability for loss, damage, injury or death which any client may suffer as a result of any act or omission on the part of or the failure of such principals to fulfill their obligations, whether in relation to travel arrangements, accommodation or otherwise. The contract in use by such principals (which is often consti¬tuted by the ticket issued by the principal), shall constitute the sole contract between the principal and the client and any right of recourse the client may have, will be solely against the principal. Your health and safety are our main priority, and we will ensure crucial areas of concern from our lodge partners as well as the following;
All clients will be required to complete a medical and travel declaration. This will be done prior to arrival in addition to arrival at our lodge partners. Special screening stations are in place as per government requirements for entry points. All Guests must complete the form, not just the contracting party. This means, passengers in hired vehicles, people sharing bedrooms in properties, etc must complete the declaration. The completion and acceptance of the form acts as access acceptance into our properties and/or vehicles. While the declaration must be signed on arrival/check-in/ boarding/pick-up to ensure it is up to date, our lodge partners may opt to ask some/all of the questions upon initial booking/reservation and may suggest that high-risk individuals might want to postpone their trip, or our lodge partners may decline such reservations.
The form will clearly state the client’s details may be shared with local health authorities if any other guests or staff member they may have been in contact with while in our lodge partner properties/vehicles becomes ill with COVID-19. If they will not agree to this, they cannot proceed. The guest declaration form must be linked by annotation to the room/vehicle the guests used where this is relevant. Where a third party is conveying guests to/from another property or attraction, copies of the guest medical and travel declaration taken by us can be passed onto the facility as long as guests’ temperatures are taken again at point/time of transfer.
Temperature of all guests will be taken upon arrival/boarding/pick-up/check-in etc. For multiple day stays, daily temperature should be recorded (when arriving for breakfast or departing property each day). For other experiences longer than two hours, leaving property, disembarking vehicle, etc temperature should be retaken. The staff member taking the initial temperature reading must annotate the medical declaration form indicating either the actual temperature recorded, or that it was taken, and it was in normal range. As far as possible any subsequent readings during a stay, and the check-out/drop-off/disembarking etc, reading should be also noted on the same record. All staff members temperatures, including management or visiting staff from other properties/office, etc will be recorded on arrival for duty and on departure again. These will be recorded on an appropriate manual. All temperatures will be taken with a non-contact thermometer. Any temperature outside the normal ranger (above 37.5C) requires action to be taken.
All guests are required to arrive with their own masks. Acceptable masks are cloth masks, surgical masks and N95 respirators. There is limited current information on removing masks to eat or drink. Recommended practice is to use a flat brown paper bag which the mask will slide into. The bag should be marked on one side ‘outside’ and the outside of the mask should always be against that side of the bag. A new bag is required each day and must be disposed of in a compliant manner.
Frequent guest and staff sanitizing and/or hand washing is critical along with frequent proper sanitizing of surfaces and these together are the key defence against COVID-19. All clients will be required to sanitize their hands-on initial arrival at our lodge partner properties, check in counter, pick up area or vehicle. Staff members can administer the sanitizer, or it can be self-administered but observed. For property guests, use walk off mats on arrival to clean shoes should be considered. Thereafter sanitizers and wipes for guests to use will be available for pens, phones, wallets, etc when used e.g. on exit, boarding or disembarking, entering or leaving a facility, area or vehicle, using bathrooms. Guests hand sanitizer or hand washing area must be widely available i.e. on hand for or carried by key staff in contact with guests and available throughout properties, in vehicles, etc. Staff must wash hands before and immediately after entering the properties or vehicles, after changing into service uniforms and frequently throughout their service times, particularly after touching items or surfaces. Appropriate bins should be available for disposal of wipes if wipes are provided.
The space between any persons in public areas and back of house areas should be a minimum of 1.5m at all times. Exceptions are when one person is if there is a shield of Perspex between two people, but highly unlikely in a ‘safari’ scenario. Guests from the same small family/friend group who share a room or vehicle can be close to each other. The properties must maximise the use of any type of non-contact processing to reduce the need for proximity of people.
Are you a family or small group wanting to travel together? Would you like your own, private safari experience where you can enjoy the comfort of exclusivity and also the benefit of being isolated from potential infection?
Whilst many of our safaris are by the very nature in which we design them, mostly exclusive, C4 has now modified its safari planning protocols to build true seclusion safaris for those who would like the privacy and safety of being isolated, and safe whilst on safari.
This will allow you to travel in your own “bubble” on safari, while we take care of your every need. If one of our guides is travelling with you, they will be looking after all the logistics and plans for you. We look after every other aspect for you.
The added benefit is that your safari is now totally flexible to your agenda. If you want a lie in, or want to stay out in the evening a bit later to watch the full moon rise, you can do so. This is a wonderful freedom to have on a safari.
Whilst planning these seclusion safaris, C4 will follow the latest WHO travel protocols regarding communicable diseases—specifically COVID-19. The health and safety of our guests and guides are of foremost importance to us.
When on a C4 seclusion safari, you can expect us to take care of all the logistics and travel arrangements, which will include;
To commence the plans for your seclusion safari, please get in touch with one of our travel consultants. We look forward to providing you the ultimate way to travel safely and to enhance your safari experience.