S.A's Children

From Yahoo:
"Tourism industry alarmed over new S.African visa policy"

 

South Africa on Monday rolled out tough new visa regulations requiring children travelling into the country to carry unabridged birth certificates, a move that industry experts predict will badly damage the tourism sector. The revised regulations dictate that children of all nationals and foreigners must be accompanied by unabridged birth certificates in addition to their passports when entering or leaving the country. The new regulations apply only to children travelling with one parent and those arriving from visa-exempt countries.  Government says the measure is aimed at curbing international child trafficking. But the tourism industry, which contributes nine percent to the country's GDP and employs around 1.5 million people, said the regulations were too cumbersome and would drive tourists away from South Africa. The chamber of commerce said airlines were "doing all they can" to prepare travellers "but their efforts have been frustrated by bureaucratic bungling." Citing official ticketing data, the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA) said flight bookings to South Africa this June plunged 20 percent compared to the same period last year, a fall blamed partially on the new rules. "Who is going to go to all this trouble to come on holiday to South Africa?" asked David Frost, the head of SATSA. "They would rather say let's go to New Zealand, Mauritius or Puerto Rico, where they are more welcome."

 

^ This new requirement goes along the same lines as being required to have 2 blank passport-pages when entering South Africa. For someone that travels a lot 2 blank pages is a big deal. I have had to have extra passport pages added to my passports the last two times (20 years as each passport is valid for 10 years.) Most countries in the world only make their passports valid for 5 years and don't allow you to add more pages to it so having 2 blank pages is harder for them. South Africa needs to do more to promote tourism in their country rather than doing things to make people go elsewhere (especially with the recent anti-foreigner riots throughout the country.) ^

http://news.yahoo.com/tourism-industry-alarmed-over-african-visa-policy-153204510.html