Immigration rules put brakes on growth in tourism — Comair CEO
New Department of Home Affairs immigration regulations have had a devastating effect on the growth in visitors to SA and will go on harming tourism until government changes its stance. Comair CEO Erik Venter expressed this view at his company’s celebration of 20 years of franchise partnership with British Airways. "The changes have had a serious effect on tourism in SA," he said. " We have been talking to tour operators in China‚ Europe and America about this. They have been advising clients not to come to SA. "SA is very much advertised by word of mouth. We don’t have strong advertising in other countries. Our tourism depends very much on the people who ... tell their friends and family about their experience. When they experience the problems we have in immigration then they go back home and tell people not to come here." The department introduced biometric system‚ which captures travellers’ fingerprints at ports of entry‚ in April last year‚ but rolled it out this June at 65% of ...
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