LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA: Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) CEO, Lily Rakorong, this week amplified the voice of the private sector in its endorsement of the UniVisa, as a tool that they strongly feel will revolutionise the way of doing business in the region.That is notwithstanding, the dissenting voices on the timing of the implementation of UniVisa and the readiness of the region for such a development.
The private sector’s concerns are well documented that the current visa regimes are laborious “and we are saying, we are servicing one traveller and therefore, it’s important to harmonise our services as a collective”.
To her, the tourism industry and the wider private sector, it is very important for them as they look at facilitation as a key enabler and a possible panacea to the industry’s headaches. At the top of the list of facilitation lies immigration and then customs amongst others. Her position is that with immigration it is all about the traveller when at the point of entry. Currently, she has concerns that within the KAZA area and by extension the SADC region, it is easy to decipher that “as member states, we don’t provide services of the same quality as we welcome the traveller”.
Her concern is that the visa regimes are laborious and “we are saying we are servicing one traveller, and therefore, it is important to harmonise our services in terms of requirements that are applicable to the traveller”. Also, looking at the costs of visas in some instances, she says it becomes very costly for the traveller. Rakorong highlights that at the SADC level, the UniVisa has been talked about for quite some time and SADC has said it will use KAZA to pilot the UniVisa. And her position is that the time is now.
She adds: ”Currently if you look into the KAZA region, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already started the use of the UniVisa and the other three members, Botswana, Angola, and Namibia should consider joining the other two and create smooth facilitation for a traveller.”
For her, it will become easier and simpler for their target, the traveller. She further explained that after all, it is one traveller that they facilitate for, who is crossing multiple countries. She feels it will be tedious and expensive for the traveller to have multiple visas and smoothly traverse the region. Customs as well, she says they will need to look at how they harmonise all the processes and procedures so that it can become easy and simpler for movement.
Beyond this, Rakorong says they also look into infrastructure and insists there has to be a conversation around infrastructure in the region.
