The Malawi Tourism Council (MTC) has warned that the country is not ready for the implementation of the new visa regime, which is only a couple of days away.

From October 1, visitors from countries that require Malawian citizens to have a visa to visit their country will need to apply for a visa to enter Malawi. Countries include the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most Middle East countries. However, The MTC has expressed concern that there is still a lot of confusion surrounding the new visa requirements.

In a statement, the MTC said: “Conflicting communication is causing confusion. The Malawi High Commission in the UK will be charging GBP95 to process a visa, Berlin will be charging EUR75 and a circular sent out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that visas are US$75.”

Rosebill Satha-Sambo, Executive Director for MTC, told Tourism Update the country was not ready yet to implement the new visa regulations, nor did airports have the capacity to issue individual visas to visitors on arrival. “We just don’t have the capacity to handle visas on arrival; there is not enough staff or infrastructure. This could clearly be seen when they ‘tested’ the new regulations recently. People were in queues for up to three hours.”

Also, at High Commissions overseas the situation is unclear, according to Satha-Sambo. “The High Commissions abroad are not prepared. Visa stickers have always been an issue as they never have enough to meet the current demand and now, with more nationalities being charged [for] visas when they still don’t have an increase of stock in visa stickers, this is a problem. Especially as immigration is advising travellers to pre-apply and acquire visas before travel.”

On a positive note, the Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that tourists who have pre-booked and paid for their holiday before October 1 will be visa-exempt and allowed to enter the country, but only if their name is on the list that was submitted to Home Affairs via the MTC Office.