The contentious unabridged birth certificate regulation resulted in 13‚246 people being denied boarding to South Africa over 12 months.

The number applies to the period June 2015 to July 2016‚ according to statistics provided by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) presented in the Portfolio Committee on Tourism meeting in parliament today.

 Taking into account that a tourist to South Africa spends on average R13‚000 per day‚ our country has lost potential revenue of R7.51 billion because of this regulation‚ according to TBCSA.

 Democratic Alliance MP James Vos said: “This once again reinforces the DA’s call to the Department of Tourism to implement e-visas‚ which will streamline tourist facilitation‚ reduce turnaround time and make visa applications safer and more reliable“.

Given that the festive season is around the corner‚ which brings thousands of tourists to our country‚ the DA would write to the Minister of Tourism‚ Derek Hanekom‚ to ask what short term measures he has in place to counter this problem‚ Vos said.

He said the TBCSA also released “worrying statistics caused by a lack for properly trained migration officers” at OR Tambo airport for the period 1-18 October 2016:

-Visitors stand in line at immigration at peak times for between 90 minutes to 4 hours;

-800 passengers have missed connecting flights due to the delays;

-24 domestic and 9 international flight were delayed; and

-International Migration Services (IMS) counters are only manned at 40% on average.

Due to these missed connections‚ airlines have lost an estimated R1.6 million over the 18-day period.

 “Clearly‚ our migration office is under-equipped and under-staffed‚ costing our tourism sector and economy millions‚” Vos said.