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Gigaba: SA is convenient for travellers

Source: By: The Star, 13/01/2016

Johannesburg - Despite concerns that South Africa's amended visa
regulations would cause a slump in tourism, the Department of Home
Affairs recorded a 7.6 percent increase in foreign arrivals over the
festive season.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba appeared triumphant at a media
briefing on Tuesday, where he shared the country's latest travel
statistics for the December 1, 2015 to January 7, 2016 period.

According to the figures, more than 5.3 million people travelled
through the country's border posts - arrivals and departures. Of that
number, over 3.9 million were foreigners while more than 1.4 million
were citizens.

Total movement for December 1, 2013 to January 7, 2014 was 5 141 021,
while the figure stood at 5 116 783 for December 1, 2014 to January 7,
2015.

Gigaba conceded there had been a "slight drop" in the previous year
but said it was attributable to the introduction of the amended visa
regulations at the time and that people had been "grappling" with the
regulations.

The latest statistical period saw over 2.7 million foreigners travel
into the country, a leap from the 2014/15 period, when over 1.8
million foreigners arrived.

"With regard to travelling minors, 284 191 foreign minors travelled to
South Africa. Only 0.6 percent of foreign minors were turned back due
to lack of compliance with requirements for travelling minors," Gigaba
said.

He said while the focus was always on European travellers, year on
year, the country experienced the highest number of arrivals from
African countries.

"The top nationalities arriving in South Africa over this period were
from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, the UK,
Germany, the US and Namibia," he added.

Topping the top 10 ports of entry and departure were OR Tambo
International Airport, Beit Bridge, Lebombo, Maseru Bridge and
Ficksburg.

Gigaba stated: "Our country can balance the national interests of
security and child safety with tourism. We can be a safe and
convenient country to travel to, and we believe the immigration
concessions do exactly that. We should be ready soon to report on the
strong advisory in respect of children from visa-exempt
countries."

He thanked all travellers and citizens for their conduct over the
period, in spite of challenges in some areas such as long queues. He
also thanked immigration officials, who kept order at the ports.
The Star

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