Although the government has rescinded the requirement that foreign children entering South Africa require unabridged birth certificates, persisting regulations around the policy continue to hurt the country’s tourism industry.
As of Monday, unabridged birth certificates will no longer be needed for foreign children.
However, they remain a requirement for South African children. This was to the detriment of outbound tourism, said Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) chief executive Otto de Vries.
He said: ‘ASATA has for several years called for a thorough consultation process with industry to develop requirements that balance the need for security with economic growth delivered through travel and tourism.’
His counterpart at the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, echoed these sentiments, saying that much remained to be done to remove the birth certificate requirement.
Ostensibly introduced to combat child trafficking, the birth certificate requirements are held to have had a significant dampening effect on South Africa’s tourism industry. Research suggested that South Africa had forfeited some R10 billion a year since 2015 as a result of it.
The change in the visa regime was welcomed as an opportunity to regain lost ground. Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said: ‘It will undoubtedly ensure ease of access to South Africa, as the work continues to bring more than 21 million targeted international visitors by 2030 to boost tourism and turn around our economy.’