South Africa aims to boost tourism by easing visa regulations

South Africa has announced plans to change its application system for travel visas into the country.
The nation aims to attract more visitors and boost its tourism industry by making visas more accessible.
Derek Hamekom, the Tourism Minister in South Africa, remarked the continent as having made “little progress in visa issuance” at the Travel Indaba gala held in Durban last week.
“Make it easy for people to come to your country; we seem to make it difficult for people to come to Africa.”
SEE ALSO:
-
Driving digital democracy with the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
-
Read the latest issue of Business Chief, Africa edition, here
“We need to take stock of which countries need visas and which ones don’t” he noted. He added, “discussions and commitments were impressive but implementation is a challenge”.
The Minister cited airports are being an issue, with tourists declined entry to the country upon arrival due to insufficient travel documents.
One of Hamekom’s proposals was implementing a system of applying for visas online with them being issued on arrival.
Those travelling from Nigeria to South Africa have struggled to receive visas with only three facilitation centres in Africa’s most populated country, leading to a decline in tourism from the nation.
- Saudi’s Red Sea Global prepares for first luxury visitorsSustainability
- ME Time: Make the Middle East your next wellness destinationSustainability
- Abu Dhabi sets ambitious tourism target of 24 millionLeadership & Strategy
- Dubai tourism, hospitality and property markets are boomingLeadership & Strategy
Featured Articles
SAP has announced it has appointed a new President for a newly-created EMEA region, aiming to make the most of the opportunities of cloud and AI technology
Technology giant SAP has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of LeanIX, a leader in enterprise architecture management (EAM) software
To help businesses achieve increased productivity, Siemens and Microsoft are deepening their partnership by showcasing the benefits of generative AI