SPONSORED | 'The 2010 Soccer World Cup was a milestone event for SA tourism, achieving unprecedented global attention, and a more or less steady rise in visitors since then. A similar event is what is needed' – Lee-Anne Bac, director of advisory at BDO
Another bonus for foreign visitors is the weak rand. For the price of a 3-star hotel in London, they can purchase a 4- or 5-star hotel in SA, though even here there are signs that local tariffs are edging towards international norms.
As such, a large percentage of these visitors from neighbouring countries make little contribution to local tourism. Last year, home affairs expanded its visa waiver programme to Russia and most southern African countries. Most of the top 10 tourism markets – including the US, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia and Canada –were already exempted from having to obtain visas to visit SA.
Even Vietnam, always hungry for visitors, has an online visa application system. SA had plans to pilot a similar system in April this year, which should go some way to smoothing out crimps in the system, but our record of innovation in this regard falls well behind those of other countries. The CEO of the SA Institute of Business Accountants, Nicolaas van Wyk, has long campaigned for a concerted push behind tourism as a way to kick-start other areas of the economy.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
SA youth plan to skip vote 25 years after freedomAbout six million young South Africans are not registered to vote in the May 8 election — a large swathe of the generation who grew up after the end of apartheid in 1994.
Read more »
50 at 25: SA has so much potential - but poor leaders, says Makhosini MgitywaTwenty-five years of democracy is a milestone that South Africans are grappling to understand. Eyewitness News spoke to 50-year-old South Africans, who have lived half their lives in apartheid and the other half in democracy, for some perspective. Makhosini Mgitywa is one of those.
Read more »
It’s not fair to compare Mr SA to Miss SA, says pageant organiserWe chat to JP Robberts, CEO of the Mr SA brand, about social media's strong reaction to the pageant's 2019 finalists
Read more »
SOUTH AFRICA AT 25: Strides made in how democratic SA cares for citizens, but corruption and mismanagement impede progressApril 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of South Africa’s official transition to democracy. Twenty-five years into the democratic era, we look at how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. In the second article of this series, the issue being considered is: How well does democratic South Africa take care of its population when it comes to providing social welfare, health and education?
Read more »
SA celebrating 25 years of freedom - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.SA celebrating 25 years of freedom South Africans are celebrating 25 years of freedom on Saturday. Millions of people of all races stood in queues at voting stations for the first time ever – as citizens went to the polls in 1994.
Read more »
Request for proposal: new marketing and communications agency for SA TourismSPONSORED | Request for proposal: SA Tourism seeks a new marketing and communications agency effective October 1 2019. Read more.
Read more »
FoodForward SA sets goal to feed 1m people daily within 5 yearsThe food redistribution organisation currently reaches over 250,000 people every day across its national beneficiary organisation network.
Read more »
FoodForward SA sets goal to feed 1 million people daily for 5 years | IOL NewsFoodForward SA, has set itself a goal of reaching one million people daily within five years as part of its vision of 'a South Africa without hunger'.
Read more »
US gives SA another chance to jack up its HIV treatment - NGOsA plan to cut US funding to South Africa for HIV programmes is likely to be reversed, so long as quality of services for people living with HIV is increased, according to health NGOs.
Read more »