Home Affairs to ‘cut visa red tape’ for tourists from China and India
Home Affairs has plans to boost tourism numbers from Asia.
Picture: JoshuaWoroniecki via Pixabay:
Lester Kiewit speaks with Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA).
Listen below.
The number of tourists coming from China has dropped significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, there were around 93,000 tourists from China to South Africa, compared to just 34,000 in 2023.
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The Department of Home Affairs is trying to lure the Asian tourist market back to South Africa by cutting some of the visa red tape from China and India.
Sixty-five tour operators are in the process of signing an agreement which will allow them to reduce the time it takes for people to apply for visas.
“This is a good step forward. Those two countries, China and India, represent significant growth that we should be able to see.”
- Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO - Tourism Business Council of South Africa
Tshivhengwa says tour operators can market South Africa as an easy country to travel to which will give us a competitive edge.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.