Visa regulations repelling Christmas tourists, despite weaker rand
22 December 2015
Delay in the implementation of concessions to the draconian Visa Regulations, continue to repel tourists from South Africa, and deny boarding to many tourists on their way to South Africa this festive season, at a time when the weaker rand should see tourism booming. It is pure ANC government stubbornness that is costing our tourism economy billions of rands, as tourists resist travelling to our country because South Africa makes their entry difficult and cumbersome.
Yesterday’s Independent Newspaper in the United Kingdom reports that between 10 and 20 families per day are being denied boarding to South Africa at Heathrow Airport, during the pre-Christmas travel period, simply because they do not strictly meet the new draconian visa requirements. The Independent quotes the CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association, Mr David Frost, as saying that growth in tourism to South Africa from the UK is flat, when it should be rapidly growing.
With the rand being at its lowest point in 14 years, South Africa’s tourism industry should be thriving, but it is not because onerous visa regulations are repelling tourists interest in our country. If the ANC government acted to relax the visa regulations, as it promised to do in October, festive season in-bound travel could have been seamless and booming.
Instead, our tourism numbers are flat this year, and more and more families are being denied boarding to South Africa.
The DA, along with the tourism industry, has long held that these regulations are disastrous for the tourism industry – an industry which constitutes 9% of our GDP and employs 1.5 million South Africans. According to industry, 1 job is created for every 12 arrivals, and in a country with a 36% unemployment rate, the potential to create jobs through tourism is being severely jeopardised by the ANC government inaction.
I will therefore today write to the Deputy President (as the Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Visa Regulations) calling on him to urgently escalate the roll out of electronic visas as a means to streamline tourist facilitation to our country. The e-visa system is the solution to our current visa regulation catastrophe, and will facilitate easier access for tourists to South Africa, if only the ANC government would move to implement the system.
I have submitted several motions in Parliament calling for the introduction of e-visas listing the myriad of benefits, whilst also highlighting the industry's support for their introduction. In committee, the DA has also consistently fought for the implementation of e-visas. We now need to see government do what must be done, to avoid a tourism drought which is fast approaching.
Various reports commissioned by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa predict that by the end of 2015, the number of lost foreign tourists due to the visa regulations is likely to hit 100 000, with a loss of 9 300 jobs and the total net loss to the South African GDP of around R4.1 billion.
The Marriott hotel group has recently also blamed the decline in tourism on these regulations.
With our economy on the brink of recession, and after last week’s terrible economic losses at the hands of President Zuma’s Ministerial shuffles, South Africa needs its tourism industry more than ever.
Issued by James Vos, Shadow Minister of Tourism, DA, 22 December 2015
