New South African visa regulations produce ambivalent response in the travel community
- The new regulations include an unabridged birth certificate for traveling minors and biometric applications.
- The birth certificate measure hopes to curb child trafficking, but industry officials express worry over growth slowdown and access issues in places like India and China where difficulties emerge with completing biometric applications.
- In addition, South African aviation officials note economic problems with some of the national carrier’s longhaul routes (including to Beijing and Argentina), potentially constraining South Africans’ own mobility.
“I cannot criticise the reason for wanting an unabridged birth certificate, but in the global village we live in we compete, for instance, with Kenya for wild life safaris…It is, therefore, a complex issue and I wish it did not have a direct impact. I am not an expert on the issue, but from an airline standpoint I think it will have a negative impact.”
More on this story at Fin 24.
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Outlas 