Gigaba, now dubbed the "Tourism Terminator", may well go down in history as the man who set back one of the few thriving sectors in the South African economy. This is the view of Dave Marsh, publisher of tourism trade magazine SA Tourism Update.
Marsh said the travel and tourism industry has since June been vocal in its criticism of South Africa's new Immigration Amendment Act, warning that the new regulations will discourage travel to the country. There have been some minor adjustments and a lot of talk, but the negative impact of the legislation can already be felt in spite of the implementation date being pushed back to 1 October 2014. Marsh said many stakeholders were already reporting cancellations and said ironically the biggest fall off in tourists may well be from South Africa's main source markets, which are visa free. Marsh says The Minister needs to urgently consult further with the tourism industry and should align the child trafficking regulation with best international practice.
He said the industry largely agreed with the biometrics visas but these should only be introduced when sufficient visa processing facilities are operational so that South Africa does not lose tourists. Despite assurances from Government that it will communicate the new unabridged birth certificate regulations to overseas travellers, it is felt that this is simply not possible to do without casualties.
To date Minister Gigaba has been unmoved by the cancellations and alarm in the industry despite the fact that Marsh says the move could result in the virtual suicide of sectors in tourism such as international conferences and group travel.
"South Africa will also get bad press in visa free countries when tourists with minors arrive for flights with only their passports, as they would expect with a visa-free destination, and are denied boarding by the airline," he says.
SA Tourism Update put out a survival guide outlining four steps the industry can take to try and survive.
He said the industry would do well to check for bookings from countries that are visa free. These tourists will not be in contact with SA embassies and will not be aware of the new documentation requirements which are unique to South Africa. The fuss that will be created when they are not allowed to board their flights will result in widespread bad press in the overseas travel press.
He also said the regulations spelt the death knell for those in the international conference sector. "Most overseas event organisers will not select a destination where delegates have to fly to another city and sometimes another country to be fingerprinted. Even if it only affects twenty percent of the delegates, South Africa is unlikely to be considered. Until there are enough biometric visa centres this will be disastrous for conventions."
Similarly he warned that those in group travel or supply services such as coaching would also soon see a huge reduction in groups arriving from countries whose citizens require biometric visas. He said SA would no longer feature in many operators' 2015 travel catalogues and the SA market needed to prepare itself for that.
"The above impact will further large scale retrenchments in the hospitality industry, at a time when the country is already reeling under the weight of an unacceptably high unemployment ratio," concludes Marsh.
