Visa change delays cause Cape jitters
The tourism industry is in a state of limbo over visa regulations and their potential effects on the sector's performance this month. Cape Town Tourism has seen no movement on the installation of biometric data-capture facilities at Cape Town International Airport.The regulations, which also require that travelling minors carry an unabridged birth certificate, have been blamed for poor recent tourism data.Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said last week the installation of biometric facilities would be concluded by early next year.Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy said Cape Town tourism businesses felt prepared for the changes to visa requirements but that uncertainty about their implementation undermined that. The department was looking at a three-month implementation plan, which "will be in time for us to start seeing our peak in international travel".Markets like the UK, Germany and France were not visa-requiring countries but numbers could be affected if the biometric system and other requirements were not implemented in time, he said. BDlive..
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