Visa fees the “biggest obstacle” in growing African aviation
By Wesley Charnock Visa reform is a priority for Africa to reach its tourism poten al, a panel of experts have agreed. African governments should stop regarding visa fees from travelers as a revenue genera ng tool and reform them, Routes Africa 2018 has been told. The Seychelles was the first African na on to remove visa fees for Chinese travelers and, according to former minister for tourism and culture Alain St.Ange, others should follow suit. “When we removed the visa in the Seychelles our policy was to become the friend of everybody and enemy of none,” he said. “You don't need a visa to enter a friend's house.” “Visas were never meant to be a revenue genera ng machine; they were designed to control borders. If you increase the number of visitors because you remove visas you will get much more revenue generated.” However, St. Ange noted that African na ons must ensure that any growth in tourist spend ends up in the hands of local people and businesses. “We need to make sure that the people get the money,” he said. “The people must benefit from this, pay more taxes, and the government gets more money.” Adam Wu, chief execu ve officer, CBN
Travel and MICE, noted that Chinese tourists are much more likely to visit a country which has scrapped visa fees. “As soon as a country removes the visa requirement, the increase in Chinese visitors is up to 600 percent,” he said. In agreement was Samson Fatokun, area manager for South-West Africa at IATA, who said that visa fees were a l s o p re ve n n g i nt ra - A f r i c a n transport. “African ci zens need visas for 60 percent of other African countries,” he said. “How can we get governments to understand this issue and liberalize the visa regime? “You get that money back in people paying for taxis, ea ng out. It creates more jobs in SMEs.” Meanwhile Stephanie Wear Pintado, director of economic and air service development, Tenerife Tourism Corpora on, noted that increasing the tourist opportunity creates addi onal benefits for a des na on. If you don't have obstacles and are able to a ract more tourists it becomes much easier to secure investment,” she said. “You can create a working economy that grows on its own.” Various models were suggested, including a regional visa system, for example in West Africa, whereby t rave l e rs co u l d v i s i t m u l p l e des na ons in one trip. This is par cularly a rac ve for Chinese visitors, noted Dr Wu. However, underpinning this must be more coopera on between countries in Africa. “We need all of the respec ve
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tourism boards to speak with one voice,” said Akwasi Agyeman, chief e x e c u v e o f G h a n a To u r i s m Authority. St. Ange added: “The African Union (AU) finally has a tourism desk a er we pushed and pushed. It is the job of the AU to work with every tourist board to create one visa for east Africa, west Africa and southern Africa.”
