Data confirms visa hit on tourism - CEO

Source: Fin24, 28/09/2015

Cape Town - There is now concrete data that confirms the adverse
effects of SA's new regulations on the country's tourism industry,
Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, told Fin24 on Monday.
He responded to the latest visitor data released by Statistics SA. A
comparison between June 2014 and June 2015 shows that, with the
exception of France, the number of tourists decreased for all the
other nine leading overseas tourism source countries of SA. China had
the largest decrease of 28.4% - from 5 823 tourists in June 2014 to 4
167 in June 2015.

"Since the introduction of the new travel requirements for travellers
on June 1 2015 by the Department of Home Affairs the tourism industry
has been predicting a decline in visitors. Now that we have concrete
data we can confirm the adverse effects of these regulations," said
Duminy.
Traveller date intelligence firm ForwardKeys, which monitors future
travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions each
day, said earlier this month that the new visa rules are seriously
affecting family travel.

Its data shows international family arrivals had been growing by 1.8%
compared with the same period last year, but since the introduction of
the visa restrictions on June 1, family arrivals have fallen 10%.

The new rules require that any child arriving in South Africa must
carry an unabridged birth certificate, or have submitted this earlier
when applying for a visa. The change has been introduced by the
Department of Home Affairs as a security measure against child
trafficking.

ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14
million reservation transactions each day, recently said before the
new visa regulations, "family" was the only growing tourism segment.
"The key tactic for all tourism industry partners in combatting these
negative numbers is to circulate more information to international
travellers. Once these requirements are fully understood globally the
sooner South Africa can expect positive arrival numbers again," said
Duminy.
The City of Cape Town`s assessment on the economic value of tourism in
Cape Town, conducted by independently-appointed consultants Grant
Thornton, estimated that 37 551 people were permanently and 15 130
temporarily employed in the tourism industry in Cape Town in 2013.
Estimations relating to new birth certificate requirements suggest
that R9.7bn in gross domestic product (GDP) could be lost to the South
African economy and 21 100 jobs countrywide and, as an outcome of the
biometric visa requirements, a further R36.7bn in GDP and 80 100 jobs
could potentially be lost.

"Cape Town Tourism is confident that despite this downward trend, the
global reputation of Cape Town as a premier holiday destination, the
current devaluation of the rand and many forthcoming events will
entice visitors to the Mother City," said Duminy.