South Africa's Trusted Tour Operator Scheme boosts tourism with over 11 000 new digital visas

EFFORTS to boost tourism in South Africa have seen significant gains as the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, on Tuesday announced, that through the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) digital platform, 11 144 tourists from China and India obtained digital visas through the scheme in three months.

- ASHLEY LECHMAN

The department said that the volume of applications grew consistently from an average of 50 per day in March to 135 per day in April and to 210 per day in May thus far.

"These are tourists who otherwise would not have come to South Africa, given the challenges previously experienced with obtaining visas for tour groups from China and India," the department stated.

The latest research facilitated by Operation Vulindlela showed that one new job is created for every 13 tourists who visit the country, suggesting that TTOS has already created 857 new tourism jobs since February with this one reform alone.