African states urged to review visa regimes, airfares
Chakalisa Dube | Monday May 15, 2023 06:00
The call was made this week by South African Minister of Tourism Patricia De Lille when officially opening the Africa Travel Indaba here on Tuesday. This year’s Indaba, which ended on Thursday (yesterday) had more than 350 tourism products showcased and featured 1,000 buyers from the global tourism ecosystem as well as just under 1,000 exhibitors.
Most notably, the attendees included destination marketing bodies, hotel groups, airlines, tour operators, and 10 African tourism boards from 21 African countries, including the Botswana Tourism Organisation.
De Lille emphasised that there is a strong need for collaboration across the tourism value chain, to unlock the full potential of the African tourism sector.
“One of the areas for possible collaboration relates to the visa regime in all African countries,” she said. “We must collaborate with a view of coming up with a harmonised visa regime across the continent to make it easier for visitors to move from one country to another.”
The minister stressed that African countries must also simplify the e-visa application process and reduce visa costs to make the continent a more attractive destination for both Africans and international travellers.
She also urged other African countries to emulate South Africa by coming up with progressive visa regulations. South Africa has always had visa waivers for several SADC countries for a specified period and up to a maximum of 90 days.
The country has now started rolling out an e-visa system to countries outside SADC, including Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and intends to expand the e-visa system to an additional 20 countries.
“At the beginning of the year, we received more tourists from Kenya due to the introduction of the e-visa system,” De Lille later told a press briefing.
At the press briefing, she underscored the need for African countries to invest heavily in digital infrastructure to implement the e-visa system. She pointed out that a well thought digital visa infrastructure will allow countries to process visas expeditiously, in the process increasing the frequency of tourism travellers in the continent.
Africa is regarded as the strongest performer currently concerning airline international connectivity although at times the growth seems uneven with some African regions and countries having better air connectivity than others. But what deeply worries De Lille is the continued escalation of high costs of air travel in the continent. For this reason, she said there had to be a serious policy intervention by African nations to counter the trend. “I am looking forward to working with various partners in reducing the high cost of air travel in Africa as we know that this deters visitors and thereby limits tourism growth.” She added, “Despite some challenges, there are some positive developments in the African aviation sector. Some African airlines are expanding their fleets and increasing their routes to meet the growing demand for air travel.”
The African Union has also launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), which aims to liberalise air transport on the continent and promote greater competition and connectivity.