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Home affairs minister says Ebola, not visa rules, deterred Chinese tourists

Source: Reuters, 02/12/2015

Stringent visa rules drawn up by Malusi Gigaba has resulted in lost
revenue of about $540m a year.

South Africa`s home affairs minister on Wednesday defended his new
policy on visas and blamed an Ebola virus outbreak for deterring
Chinese tourists rather than the new visa rules.

Tour operators criticised the minister, Malusi Gigaba, in October for
introducing stringent visa rules which they said had caused a sharp
drop in Chinese visitors who are now required to make long trips to
South African embassies and consulates in designated cities to acquire
visas.

They said the rules drawn up by Gigaba had resulted in lost revenue of
about $540 million a year.

"The drop happened at a time when there was an Ebola outbreak on the
African continent. To blame the drop in tourism numbers on visa
requirements is lazy," Gigaba told Reuters on the sidelines of a
meeting between South Africa`s President Jacob Zumathe and Chinese
President Xi Jinping.

Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom said in July that the rules had to be
relaxed after a "worrying drop" in visitor numbers, but Gigaba they
were needed to guard against child trafficking.

The visa rules were relaxed in October to make it easier for visitors
with children and those from India, China and Russia.

"We never made a mistake," Gigaba said when asked if the rules had
been a mistake. "That`s why we didn`t change the regulations. We
changed the specifications."

Gigaba said travel warnings by U.S. and the European Union were unfair
towards Africa. The West frequently issues travel warnings after
attacks by Islamist insurgents.

"There is certainly hypocrisy in travel warnings. If you consider the
scale of incidents in Africa, it`s very low compared to what you are
seeing in the EU," he said referring to last month`s attacks in Paris.

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