Tears at the airport as families denied boarding

Source: Tourism Update, 13/07/2016

Tears at the airport as families denied boarding
The implementation of the UBC regulation for minors has resulted in
tears as families are denied boarding.


Nearly two years after the implementation of South Africa's
regulations for travelling minors, travellers are still being denied
boarding as foreign airline staff try to implement the unabridged
birth certificate (UBC) regulation.


With effect from June 1, 2015, children travelling to, from and
transiting through South Africa are required to produce an unabridged
birth certificate.


An Inter-Ministerial Committee, last year recommended changes to these
regulations but, to date, no change has been made.


According to Martin Wiest, CEO of Tourvest Destination Management,
more than 30 people were unable to fly from Paris to Johannesburg last
week as a result of the regulations.


Wiest said there was still a lot of confusion about the paperwork of
non- South African minors.


He shared his thoughts on a Facebook post on July 9 about his
experience boarding a flight in Paris to Johannesburg: "A family from
San Francisco was denied boarding ahead of us, a Canadian family
behind us, and also an unaccompanied minor from Singapore with a US
passport."


He described his experience as "Endless tears, no resolve, no
solution, just unloaded" and added that the situation was damaging
SA`s brand.


David Frost, Satsa CEO, said he received stats from South African
Airways last year detailing the June-December period, with an average
of 13 people being turned away a day. "SAA only accounts for 30% of
all inbound traffic so if you extrapolate that it would actually be
about 40 people a day."


Frost highlights three ways in which the confusion of the UBC has
impacted the tourism industry. "Firstly, the number of people who have
been turned away with pre-booked holidays, secondly, the negative PR
that is sent out every day across the travelling community, as we`re
the only country in the world to do this. The third and most powerful
way this impacts us is that we will never know or be able to measure
how many people were thinking of coming to South Africa who changed
their minds and simply went to New Zealand, Australia or Thailand." He
adds that the potential visitors who opted for an alternative
destination are the "untold damage" of the UBC impacts.


Frost said the confusion had put the onus on the airline staff to
implement the regulations, when they did not know much themselves,
resulting in "crying from children and shouting from adults".


Mike Smuts, Owner, Africa Deluxe Tours, described an incident where an
American high school choir, the Main Street Singers, were denied
boarding a Delta Air Lines flight from San Francisco via Atlanta to
Johannesburg.


The tour group comprised 41 people, 27 of them were minors who formed
part of the choir. "The choir has travelled internationally for more
than 30 years annually and have never encountered any problems in the
world with visa regulations for children.


He said the problem was that staff of a foreign airline at the gate of
a foreign airport had to act as immigration officials.


The tour had to be shortened by two days, resulting in the choir
missing two days in Gauteng, three concerts, and an African choral
workshop. Smuts said despite the tour being a success the experience
had damaged the South African brand.


Bottom of Form
If these figures are real and a fair reflection of the numbers of pre
booked, paid and highly expectant visitors being turned away, lets
extrapolate the damage to our industry in Rand value: David indicated
forty ( 40 ) are turned away per day. Three hundred & sixty five days
( 365 ) in a year we have fourteen thousand six hundred ( 14600 )
expectant southern African visitors being turned away to face close to
half a million ( 500,000 ) of their family, friends, colleagues,
newspapers, travel facilitators in & around the world of their
influence to bear the brunt of their miserable story. Should these
half a million souls feel an equal energy of neglect, an uncaring & a
heartless ' host ' to be experienced within their sphere of influence
what would the numbers of souls writing off any temptation to come to
South Africa be ? Possibly a further five to eight million ? In
monetary value, those fourteen thousand six hundred initial visitors
would have invested close to a third of one Billion Rands into the T &
T and broader