Slamming the door shut on tourism
SOUTH AFRICA is one of the most remarkable and unique destinations to visit. It moves visitors in so many ways with its natural beauty, the wildlife, its history, the people and the food.
Tourism is an important element in the economic and social growth and development of the nation, contributing about 10 percent (directly and indirectly) to gross domestic product and employing one in 10 South Africans.
Despite this, the government has remarkably and irresponsibly passed laws that deter tourism, with total disregard for their consequences and without dialogue with the industry.
For those who are unaware, in the latter part of last year the Department of Home Affairs imposed new entry regulations for visitors that require:
Children under 18 to carry copies of an unabridged birth certificate.
All prospective applicants in source markets – China and India – who need a visa to travel to South Africa, to appear in person at the overseas mission to which they are applying, so biometric data may be captured.
Why the new regulations, which came into effect on June 1?
The Ministry of Home Affairs is seeking to tackle aggressively the problem of human trafficking, particularly of children.
South African borders are seen to be porous, and the department believes that imposing stricter entry regulations is a way of arresting this social ailment.
As important and as well intended as the new regulations may be, the fact is this: human trafficking and tourism have nothing to do with one another, and blocking the entry of tourists is going to do nothing to curb human trafficking.
All it will do is cut off the oxygen of the nation’s vital tourism industry – an industry that one in 10 South Africans rely on for the livelihoods and the well-being of their families.
Here are the facts that, sadly, the Ministry of Home Affairs failed to grasp when drawing up the new regulations:
South Africa is a nation working tirelessly to stimulate and sustain job creation, SME opportunity, national unity and productivity, not to mention national competitiveness.
Tourism has become a vital source of jobs: one in 10 South Africans is employed through tourism, with the sector’s earnings exceeding those of the country’s traditional lead sector, gold.
Visa and immigration policies are among the most important of the government policies that can influence international tourism.
Although the new regulations came into effect only at the beginning of this month, the damage had long been done to visitor numbers, national image, and attractiveness of the destination. Booking periods into next year are seeing painful losses.
Blocking tourism flows through increased regulation is not a solution!
And yet, despite the foregoing and despite the significant efforts made by global tourism authorities such as the UN World Tourism Organisation and World Travel and Tourism Council, along with international airlines and tour operators, to persuade the government to reconsider the regulations, inertia continues.
Much to my surprise, I have just heard that there isn’t even any tracking of trafficking numbers to deter mine if the new tourism regulations are having an impact.
This means Home Affairs can and will continue to penalise tourism for trafficking, based on its hypothesis that there is a correlation and in the absence of hard data showing a direct relationship between trafficking and tourism. As we well know, travel today is a given. If South Africa becomes too hard a des- tination to visit, which it is now proving to be, all that the government is doing is opening the door for other tourism nations to grow as a result of its decline.
Case in point: India. Since the subcontinent’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, took office, profound changes have occurred in the nation’s tourism policies. Why? Because the new prime minister recognises the tourism sector as the panacea for many of the nation’s ailments – as it provides inclusivity, investment, opportunity, economic advancement, identity and competitiveness.
Modi has not just walked the talk, he has sprinted it, taking such dramatic actions as offering e-visas (issued within 24 hours) to 150 countries across the globe – a dramatic rise from his predecessor’s list of 34 countries.
The impact – an overwhelming 1 024 percent increase in the number of travellers in the first five months of this year.
Australia and the US have seen similar upswings in tourism arrivals from key source markets such as China and India – the exact markets on which South Africa has imposed biometric testing before it will grant visas.
Since June 18, Australia has been allowing Chinese visitors to qualify for 10-year visas. This was reported as a “tourism breakthrough”.
It has seen the number of visitors from China increase by 18 percent and the number from India by 30 percent.
By contrast, Thompsons Travel (which is probably South Africa’s largest inbound operator – I am chairman of its parent company) saw painful decreases in the number of travellers from China and India in the first five months of the year in comparison with the same period last year. The number from China dropped by 53 percent and that from India by 54 percent.
Forward bookings look to maintain the grim rate of decline. Are these tourists going elsewhere? Absolutely. Mauritius, in the same period, saw the number of inbound tourists from China increase by 26.6 percent and those from India by 24.3 percent.
Bottom line: The relaxing of visa regulations is not about the eliminating of security measures. Quite the contrary.
All it means is ensuring governments acquire appropriate information before a traveller’s entry. They need to take care to make visa acquisitions uncomplicated.
There are ways of strengthening our borders in tandem with simplifying our visa procedures.
Our competitors are clearly getting this win-win approach right.
To attack well-intentioned tourists, travelling in many cases thousands of kilometres to spend their time and money in a country, is to attack the major artery of the future of a nation.
In the case of South Africa, with its new regulations shutting the door to visitors, this is taking the welcome mat away from my home, and this is simply unforgivable.
Tollman is chief executive of Trafalgar, the industry leader in guided vacations; chairman of Cullinan Holdings, owner of many of Southern Africa’s premier tourism, travel and leisure brands; and a board member of the Travel Corporation and Wilderness Holdings Limited.