South Africa’s tourism industry – including associations such as FEDHASA, SATSA, TBCSA, and the NFTGA – have long been lobbying for visa reform as the much-lauded e-visa systems continue to fail and there have been consistent complaints of excessive visa application delays, rudeness and visa denials
Other countries are leading the way in introducing digital nomad visas or simplifying their visa application processes while South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – which manages the visa system – seems to be putting more barriers in place.
This includes the lucrative ‘swallows’ market (aka ‘Sun Chasers’) who visit for up to 180 days and are a golden goose for South Africa’s economy and indeed its tourism sector, which is the third-highest GDP earner for the country and enjoys a deep and vast supply chain creating job opportunities.
On December 21, the DHA snuck in its latest instruction demanding visitors who have not received visa renewals by February 23 to depart South Africa immediately. This overruled the previous agreement allowing visitors an additional 90-day extension while awaiting visa renewals.
SATSA CEO, David Frost and the Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, lobbied hard against what SATSA termed this “thoughtless directive” but by the time the February 23 deadline had come and gone, the DHA had not responded to industry appeals.
Tourism Update began its campaign to raise awareness of visa issues in December last year when a reader highlighted her concerns about SA losing ground to its competitor destinations due to ongoing visa issues.
Calls for comment from readers elicited a number of responses, including anecdotal evidence from a number of readers participating in an informal Tourism Update reader’s survey, which revealed that that 71.4% of respondents had lost bookings due to delays on the issuing of visas, including e-visas, and 57.1% said they had lost bookings due to visas being declined.
Source market partners highlight challenges
Overseas agents and operators have also reached out directly to Tourism Update to share their frustrations and challenges in obtaining visas to visit South Africa and explore it as a potential destination for their country’s travellers.
One buyer from Mexico said she had to miss attending Meetings Africa – held in Johannesburg at the end of February – because she had not received her visa on time.
Owners of a Romanian tour operation are the latest to appeal to Tourism Update by sharing, in their open letter to the Minister of Tourism, their challenges in receiving a visa to South Africa – resulting in another explorative destination trip being cancelled and them losing money on flights and accommodation etc.
They said: “If we as tourism specialists were given no chance to get a visa, although we proved that we were of good faith and sent all the documents asked for, what chances do some potential tourists have who go there on their own?”
Here is the unabridged letter in full.
“Our names are Victor Serban and Silvia Manuela Serban, and we are the owners and CEO of the Romanian operator Gamma Touristic, a travel agency with a number of branches in the main cities of Romania.
In the past, I (Victor) have worked on the German market together with three big tour operators. So far, we have travelled to more than 100 countries in order to research the destinations to propose to our clients.
Following the announcement that, starting from May 2023, Romania was included in the list of countries that can apply for a visa online for South Africa, I purchased a plane ticket to South Africa for February 21, 2024, in order to make a tourist tour of the country up until March 9, 2024.
I want to mention that, I have been given hundreds of tourist visas, including the 10-year one for the USA, and I have never been denied access to a country.
I accessed the e-visa system on November 26, 2023, and uploaded all the requested documents into the system. Seeing that I did not receive any response in the system, I also went to your consulate in Dubai on January 2, 2024, with all the original documents, but I was refused on the grounds that I had to wait for the response in the electronic system.
I waited for an answer until January 24, 2024, when the system caught on and I was asked to upload documents from which the residence would appear.
On February 5, 2024, I received a message that I must send proof of accommodation because some of them have been cancelled since November 2023. I redid and paid for all the accommodations in full, and I sent the proof in less than 24 hours.
Starting with this date, I wrote dozens of messages to those who dealt with the granting of visas, and I received a very rare and superficial reply. All the answers told me that we have to be patient for the visa to be processed.
I also asked the South African Ministry of Tourism for help at the email address MNene@tourism.gov.za who assured us that our desperate message was to be sent to the authorised persons.
In the week before the flight, I sent 10 messages, and when I got a reply, they said that they knew about the situation and we would get a reply. We hoped until the last moment that we would be able to go to South Africa, but the answer didn't come, and our flight tickets were cancelled for no-show, and we lost all the money.
The day after our flight had already taken off (February 22, 2024), we received an email to redo the application, but we had already missed the flight due to the fact that you were late with the visa. If we as tourism specialists were given no chance to get a visa, although we proved that we were of good faith and sent all the documents asked for, what chances do some potential tourists have who go there on their own?
I want to know what danger we represent to South Africa and why you didn't give us any chance to get the visa, for which we paid in advance for flight tickets and accommodation. What will compensate us for the loss of time, money, stress, and disappointment?
The best advertising is satisfied tourists who return back home and tell their friends about their vacation experiences. There are countries that do not want tourists and assume this: North Korea, Yemen, Somalia, etc., and that do not make fun of people's money. They have a clear message: "We don't want tourists; we don't give visas."
By sharing my experience on tourism sites in my country, I received a lot of messages from people who had negative experiences like mine.
Someone wrote to me saying that the online visa was rejected by a DHA employee on the grounds that the account statement could not be vetted (the statement was perfectly valid, translated into English, and stamped by the issuing bank) and asked for help on WhatsApp, which was answered by the one above, saying that it couldn't help him with anything and that "no one is forcing you to come to SA" after the tourist paid for his plane ticket and hotel reservations.
If you don't want tourists, one of the most significant sources of income for a country, to come to your country, then why do you promote your country online and offline by participating at ITB, considering the fact that you are making people lose money, time, and dreams?!
By constantly participating in tourism fairs, including the one in Berlin where we were presenting exhibitions since 2000, I do not understand how a country that invests millions of euros in tourism promotion makes fun of potential tourists by being an online visa system that does not have any purpose as long as it doesn't work and tourists are treated poorly with disrespect.
I can share my experience on all groups, social media pages, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram, including tourism organisations and forums you belong to, cruise companies, and airlines.
I am waiting for a quick and favourable answer and for the person who made a mistake to return my money on plane tickets.”
Editor’s Note: The Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, has acknowledged the urgent need for visa reform and is working with industry to address this. Tourism Update has forwarded this letter to her office and offered her the opportunity to respond.
