A report released by the Tourism Business Council of SA has shown that the new immigration regulations which came into effect on the 1st June are already having a negative impact on the South African tourism industry.

The report specifically identified the two most criticised changes in the regulations as being responsible for the negative impact. These are firstly the requirement that all children under the age of 18 travelling to and from South Africa must be in possession of an unabridged birth certificate in addition to their passport and visa, where applicable. Then secondly the requirement that tourists from countries that are required to have a visa now have to apply in person in order to have a biometric (fingerprint ) visa.

The report estimates that from May to December 2014 South Africa lost 66 000 foreign tourists due to the above changes. About 43% of these lost tourists would have been from Asian/Australasian countries, 16% from European countries and15% from Africa

The report states that the number of tourists that will be lost in 2015 as a result of the regulations changes will increase to 100 000 with a direct tourism spend loss of R 1.4 billion as well as the loss of approximately 9 300 jobs.

The report states that the requirement that children travel with an unabridged birth certificate in addition to their passport when travelling with both parents was not applied anywhere else in the world.

There was also no international standard for birth certificates, as each country had the right to develop their own document that proved the birth or existence of a person. Some countries did not even issue birth certificates.

"Thus, tourists looking to travel to South Africa with their children may well be deterred from visiting due to the hassle factor of having to secure birth certificates for their children and hence could choose another destination with simpler entry requirements."

“Approximately 700 000 children [younger than 18 years] visited South Africa in 2014 and given the expected growth trajectory in foreign tourism to South Africa, this number would be expected to grow significantly in the future," the report stated.
The report specifically highlighted a drop in the number of visitors from China and India in 2014.

The number of visitors from China was down by about 25%. The report states that this is particularly concerning as “China has become the largest outbound tourism market in the world with 109 million outbound tourists in 2014. Furthermore, Chinese tourists are big spenders and collectively represent the world's top tourist spending nation," the report stated.

According to tour operators, the amendments to the immigration regulations were the key game changer in relation to reduced visitors from China. These losses have meant gains for other countries with Chinese visitors to Australia up 10%. Mauritius has gained significantly with a 67% increase in Chinese tourists.