New unfriendly visa regulations have plunged South Africa into a tourism crisis costing the country about R1.6-billion as visitors are forced to jump through hoops to enter the country, according to a new report.
Grant Thornton’s Advisory Service this morning reported a six percent decline in the number of foreign tourist arrivals for the first three months of this year.
This means that 150 000 fewer people chose to visit the country at a time when the country’s weak currency should theoretically have driven up the numbers.
And it only gets worse, because the company has calculated that the sudden dip in tourism has resulted in R1.6bn less being pumped into the South African economy.
“A loss of this magnitude in foreign tourist arrivals is unprecedented.
“We have not seen such dire levels of decline in the last 21 years of our tourism industry,” said Thornton’s director Lee-Anne Bac…
South Africa Travel – Visa
