Concern over SA tourism’s future as visa rules bite
Fears of a 90% drop in Chinese visitors, but the government insists it is taking correct approach
THE new visa regulations are ripping the heart out of South Africa’s tourism business, key industry players claim.
Figures already show that inbound travel is drastically down, largely because many would-be visitors to South Africa were “turned off” after the announcement last year of the stringent regulations, which include biometric requirements and, for minor children, unabridged birth certificates.
According to government figures, tourism provides 9% of South Africa’s GDP and creates 1.5 million jobs.
The biggest blow has been to the Chinese market, and the Indian travel fraternity is said to have lost “complete faith” in the South African visa procedures.
Since the new regulations were announced in May last year, revenue from Chinese tourists alone is down by at least 70%. It is feared the drop could be as much as 90%.
And there are indications that other destinations are benefiting: tourists from countries who spend big — including China — are opting to go to Australia and Mauritius, for example.
Lee Kelsall, CEO of Ker and Downey, a travel agency offering luxury African travel experiences, said the visa regulations, including the biometric requirements, were a turn-off for travellers. “Air China cancelled its direct flights to South Africa soon after the new regulations were announced last year,” he said.
A UK poll last year revealed that 61% of respondents were put off by the new requirements, especially when it came to travelling with a child.
“A lot of our packages include South Africa and another African country. I think the requirements are also making South Africa’s neighbouring countries nervous,” said Kelsall.
According to a home affairs briefing to parliament last month, the department’s Movement Control System tallied in 2014 a total of 940 000 citizens under the age of 18, and a total of 1.8 million foreign children moved through South Africa’s ports of entry.
Mkuseli Apleni, the department’s director-general, said a combined 2.7 million children travelled in and out of South Africa each year.
He said that if the 2.7 million were not controlled, the system was open to child trafficking and children being used for labour on farms. The regulations sought to curb that.
Scott Lupien, president of the 52Safari International Hunting Club in Beijing, said that it baffled him that South Africa was making it more difficult for Chinese citizens to obtain travel visas while the rest of the world was making it easier for them. “Chinese are the biggest travel spenders in the world and cer- tainly spend a fortune every year in South Africa,” he said.
Vikram Samant, MD of Indiabased Quantum Travels, said that as soon as the biometric visa system was announced last year, most clients were informed and chose other destinations for travel.
He said: “The entire Indian travel fraternity has lost complete faith in the South African visa procedure. Several agents in India lost a considerable amount of money last year. The damage is done.”
Julia Willand, director at Immigration Consulting South Africa, said more visa applications were being turned down.
Home affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete denied there had not been enough consultation on the new regulations.
“When it comes to the unabridged birth certificates, we are just following the law set by the Child Protection Act. That went through parliament, where everyone had the opportunity to comment,” he said.
It was also clear that other destinations were cashing in on South Africa’s loss.
According to statistics from the South African Tourism Services Association, for the 12month period to the end of September 2014, the number of Chinese visitors to Australia was up 10%.
David Frost, the association’s CEO, said that for the nine months to end September 2014, Chinese visitors were “up a staggering 67% in Mauritius”.
For the 12 months to end September 2014, the number of Indian visitors to Australia increased by 15%.
Satsa statistics showed that airline ticketing revenue for this month was down by 32% compared with last year.
For next month, it is down by 28%, and 21% for the remainder of the year so far. The association gleans such figures from ticket sales that have been made ahead of actual travel.
Said Frost: “If you consider that 97% of all our tourists come in by air, you can see that air ticketing revenue is the best measure of impact, and this is cataclysmic.”
Mmatšatši Ramawela, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, said the council remained “deeply concerned” that the regulations were “not in tune with global trends”.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents 260 airlines and comprises 84% of global air traffic, has described the new regulations as “harsh and onerous”.
It said it fully supported South Africa “in its laudable campaign to combat child trafficking”, but airports were “not the only points of entry and exit to a country”. It pointed out that the police’s official crime statistics for March 2004 to March 2014 “do not mention a single reported case of child trafficking”.
The entire Indian travel fraternity has lost complete faith in the South African visa procedure