We need the tourists

Source: By Nondumiso Mbuyazi - iol.co.za, 01/08/2015

Durban - Durban's tourism-dependent businesses have seen a drop in
overseas visitors because of the country's new visa regulations for
children.

Local travel associations, travel agents, hotels and bed and breakfast
establishments applauded Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom for
acknowledging that the new regulations had contributed to a
significant drop in international visitors.
They described the new travel requirements for children as
"mind-boggling" and "absolute madness", and have called for them to be
amended or completely scrapped.

In Durban on Friday, Tsogo Sun's director of operations, Mike Jackson,
said they had felt the effects of the law during the World Baptist
Alliance conference in the city recently.

The organisers were expecting between 5 000 and 6 000 tourists.
"But we ended up with about 3 000 people," he said, attributing the
drop in figures to the regulations.


Jackson said they were expecting the numbers for other international
conferences still to be held in Durban to also decrease drastically.
"We've become a difficult country to travel to. The Chinese and
Indians aren't coming because it's just too difficult for them,
because they usually travel in large groups with children," he said.
Jackson called for the regulations to be repealed.


Peter Rose, chairperson of Umhlanga Tourism, said they were fortunate
because uMhlanga was a year-long holiday destination.


"But we have seen a drop. It has impacted on some places more than
others. In a country where the economy is suffering and where tourism
forms such a huge contribution, it defies logic to come up with such
legislation," he said.


"The government needs to ask itself whether it wants to grow the
economy or not."

In addition, there had been a decrease in figures for tourists from
Holland, Belgium and the UK, who also usually travel in groups.
"If these tourists fall foul of the legislation, they would rather
stay in their countries or go on holiday elsewhere," said Rose.
The regulations, which the Department of Home Affairs says are to
protect children from child trafficking, came into effect two months
ago.


Bed and Breakfast Association of SA managing director Barbara Hamm
said the law would fail to yield the desired results. Child
traffickers would find loopholes.
Charles Preece, operations manager at the Federated Hospitality
Association of Southern Africa, described the regulations as absolute
madness.


"I support what the tourism minster said. This law has brought the
country's tourism to a state of panic," he said.
Speaking during a radio interview, Hanekom said figures for the first
quarter of the year had shown a "worrying drop" in the number of
visitors coming into the country.


Markets like China had shown a drop of almost 40 percent, he said.
After Hanekom conceded the new requirements were hurting the industry,
Minister of Home Affairs Melusi Gigaba defended the regulations and
accused Hanekom of undermining the cabinet.


Gigaba said protecting children was non-negotiable, and that the
regulations would not be scrapped.

He said authorities would look into ways to simplify the
administrative problems associated with unabridged birth certificates.


The new regulations require minors travelling to and from South Africa
to have unabridged birth certificates, as well as the consent of both
their parents.

Hamm said her association was concerned about decreasing tourism
figures.

"I know there might be many factors, like the financial crisis or the
Ebola outbreak, but we've seen the most significant drop after this
act," she said.

The most noticeable decline in tourism was in the Chinese market.
The government should have been level-headed and considered all
affected stakeholders before implementing such "drastic" regulations.
The DA's shadow minister of tourism, James Vos, said the government
would have to launch a public relations campaign costing "hundreds of
millions" of rand to repair the damage caused by the new regulations.
Vos, who plans to bring an urgent motion before Parliament next week
in a bid to find solutions, said it was now time for Gigaba to "admit
defeat, cut his losses and suspend the regulations".

– Additional reporting by Barbara Cole

Independent on Saturday