Hotel groups and tourism bodies are feeling the effects of the "Draconian" and "irrational" visa legislation recently implemented to prevent child trafficking. The Indaba Hotel, in Fourways, Johannesburg, says it has lost an estimated R5-million over the five months in 2014 when the regulations were first due to come into effect, but were postponed.Cancellations by prospective tourists from Asia have surged.Hotel manager Charles Drewe said losing 15% of the hotel's business could translate into job losses for some of his 400 workers.Drewe was speaking at a tourism industry briefing about the new regulations, which have had a severe impact on the sector, which was previously growing.The airline industry's revenue was also down by 25% in June, 21% in July and 23% in August.David Frost, CEO of the SA Tourism Services Association, demanded that the visa legislation be "rescinded immediately" so the tourism industry could take advantage of the unprecedentedly weak rand to entice tourists and create jobs.Frost said Home Affairs had suggested that prospective tourists apply in person for their visa so that their fingerprints could be taken but, he claimed, there was no biometrics equipment at South Africa's Indian, Russian and Chinese embassies."In the year since they promulgated this legislation, [the government has] not been able to implement [the legislation] they introduced to make us safer, but they have killed the [tourism] market".Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said there was no biometrics equipment at the embassies cited by Frost because people in India and China were not applying in person for visas."What affected Asian tourism is the Ebola crisis."The industry has selective amnesia. [The requirement of] unabridged birth certificates was not being applied last year and the biggest drop in tourism was in 2014."Frost asked why children from Lesotho travelling through South Africa's land borders did not require an unabridged birth certificate, if the law had been designed to stop trafficking of children. Most trafficking takes place over land, said Frost.Tshwete said: "Children from Lesotho have to show an unabridged birth certificate. But those attending school here have to show their birth certificate only once to get a study visa."..