Government idiocy is sinking tourism

The ANC leadership needs to be given a lesson in the “law of unintended consequences”. Once they understand that they need to think in depth about populist or knee-jerk feel-good policies, they will, hopefully, consider all the implications of an action before implementing it.

The latest example of a policy not being thought through, with serious negative consequences for the country, is that of the visa restrictions and travel policies introduced by the department of home affairs under then minister Malusi Gigaba.

If, as he now claims, the policies were formulated before his time, it is irrelevant: the ANC government decided to put in place measures that have seen moneyed foreign tourists avoiding this country in droves.

This week, StatsSA figures showed a 0% growth for tourism in October – something the Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) has attributed to the damage done by the policy, which insists on parents bringing their children’s full birth certificates with them if they want to be allowed into this country.

This restriction has resulted in scores of people being turned away at the airport of their departure city – and, undoubtedly, thousands more who either cancelled trips to South Africa, or went elsewhere where the entry requirements are less onerous.

And, even though the child travel restrictions have been supposedly relaxed, in practice, it is the opposite, according to TBCSA’s CEO, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa.

He says if you come from a country where parents’ details are recorded in the passport of a child, you do not need to carry the full documentation. This is still a problem because our primary tourism source markets do not issue such passports.

So, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Tourism is a renewable source of revenue and jobs. We cannot allow government idiocy to sabotage it.

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