In a cruel twist, a record-breaking leap in confidence in services that include hotels and restaurants has been gutted by the series of controversial travel bans instituted by a host of countries, after SA scientists identified the Covid-19 Omicron variant. 

The data from the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) released on Monday comes as the local hospitality sector has pleaded with the government to avoid harder lockdowns, in a bid to protect jobs and businesses as it now turns to local tourism to carry the all-important holiday season...