The cabinet will completely overhaul the visa system to significantly change the selection of visa-free countries as well as implement e-visas to net a growing number of visitors from China and India. Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom told Business Times that he and the Chinese ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian had agreed to win a 1 million people slice of the 130-million tourists who travel outside the Asian giant every year. Over five years, this will be a tenfold increase. Hanekom said tourist arrivals from China to South Africa took a knock because of ebola outbreaks in central and West Africa in 2015 and then dropped by 17% in 2017 after an attack on tourists who were followed and robbed on their way from OR Tambo airport. Although South Africa did not have an outbreak of the deadly ebola infection, it felt the ripple effect. "We need two things - to ensure South Africa is no longer perceived as an unsafe country and to make it easier for Chinese people to get visas." Haneko...
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