Open letter to the Minister: a plea from India Vikram Samant, Managing Director of Quantum Travels marketing South Africa in India, urges the Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba to rethink enforcing the biometric visa process. We have just finished with our Indian summer season and thankfully the biometric visa process was not in force. For the Indian market it is too early in the day to actually define bookings cancelled due to the introduction of the biometric visa. However, we will find it very difficult to promote sales to South Africa considering that we will need to book appointments in Mumbai and or Delhi for our clients to have their South African visas processed. I believe there will be just two centres in India that will process the biometric visa, and clients staying in cities other than Mumbai and Delhi will have to make a domestic trip to secure a visa for their travel, which will only add costs to their proposed trip to South Africa. I am very confident that a large number of travellers will avoid this unnecessary cost and will keep their travel to South Africa on the back burner. Besides being a value-for-money destination, the visa process was simple and selling South Africa as a tourist destination was the easiest piece of business at Quantum. While the Honourable Home Affairs Minister, Mr Malusi Gigaba, enforces biometric visas, France has recently decided to do away this process and has guaranteed visa approvals in just two days and is going all out to woo the Indian tourist. With France abandoning the process of the biometric visa for Indian nationals, we at Quantum are getting regular inquiries from clients to book their travel to Europe. We will definitely feel the brunt of this new visa regulation, but I shudder to think about the revenue loss to the inbound tour operators who have invested several man hours and money to promote South Africa in the Indian market. I feel South Africa will lose tourist dollars to Europe and in time to come South African Tourism will feel the pinch. As a tour operator to South Africa, I urge the Honourable Home Affairs Minister, Mr Malusi Gigaba, to rethink enforcing the biometric visa process. tourismupdate.co.za/NewsDetails.aspx?newsId=73363
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 08:36:28 +0000
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