Yahoo TV

This docking of the Europa passenger liner in Cape Town on Tuesday (November 30) was supposed to be a ribbon-cutting celebration.

To mark the official start of the cruise ship season since the pandemic.

Instead - some passengers will now disembark and be tested for the new Omicron coronavirus variant, before flying straight home...

As international travel curbs on southern Africa, where the variant was first identified, have blown expectations of a bumper tourist season out of the water.

Owned by German-based travel company TUI Group, the ship carrying hundreds of passengers and crew was sailing from Namibia to Cape Town when news of Omicron broke and raised the possibility that the ship could be re-routed.

The multi-story luxury liner is the first to dock at Cape Town since South Africa imposed a total ban on all cruise ships entering local ports in March 2020.

A succession of tough lockdown curbs has hammered the local tourism sector dependent on foreign tourists.

The ship was originally meant to stay in port until December 2 before departing.

With the itinerary including visits to attractions like Table Mountain and apartheid-era prison Robben Island, where former president Nelson Mandela was incarcerated.

The summer season is vital for Cape Town, which officials say has lost an estimated 75,000 tourism jobs in the pandemic.

Now travel restrictions from the European Union, the UK, and United States due to Omicron - designated a variant of concern by the World Health Organization - have seen the region's three biggest markets cut off.