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Second window in South Africa for Indian tour operators to apply under Trusted Operators Scheme
Johannesburg, Apr 8 (PTI): Indian tour operators have a second opportunity to apply for registration for preferential treatment for visa applications under a scheme initiated by the South African government to boost touris.
Johannesburg, Apr 8 (PTI): Indian tour operators have a second opportunity to apply for registration for preferential treatment for visa applications under a scheme initiated by the South African government to boost tourism.
Minister of Home Affairs Dr Leon Schreiber has gazetted a second invitation for applications to the highly successful Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS).
TTOS was introduced in February after the earlier success of the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES), which provides swift and simplified visa processing services to vetted and approved businesses to attract critical skills.
The South African government decided to extend the same principles of cutting red tape and improving efficiency for tourists from non-visa exempt countries like China and India.
Through TTOS, vetted and approved tour operators, who assume responsibility for travellers in their groups, can submit group visa applications from Chinese and Indian tourists travelling with them in order to avoid long delays for individual applications.
“Since the first tourist visa applications from China and India were processed through this scheme on February 12, the department has been inundated with requests to expand it so that more tour operators can contribute to driving tourism growth,” the Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
“The department is encouraged by this overwhelmingly positive response, as it confirms the enormous potential our visa reforms hold to create more jobs by bringing more tourists to our shores. In response to these calls, and after effecting additional upgrades to the online platform that processes TTOS applications, minister Schreiber has today opened a second window for more tour operators to apply to join the scheme,” it added.
Tour operators that want to apply have 30 days to submit their applications through the dedicated online portal accessible via the department’s website. No paper-based applications will be accepted.
As with the first intake, applications will be assessed by an interdepartmental team using Artificial Intelligence tools to vet and select successful participants.
“The key to the success of TTOS lies in the fact that the process has been digitally transformed from start to end. Whereas prospective tourists from China and India previously had to stand in long queues, submit paper applications, and sometimes wait so long for paper outcomes that they missed their flights, the digitalisation of this process through TTOS means that even visa outcomes for large groups are now issued digitally within hours,” Schreiber said.
The minister said that in the few weeks since TTOS was launched, over 2,000 additional tourists from China and India, who would otherwise not have come to the country owing to previous visa inefficiencies, had boosted tourism numbers to South Africa.
“Even more encouraging is the trend of applications received. On the first day of operation, 21 applications were received. This figure has grown to 165 per day and shows no sign of slowing down,” Schreiber said.
“The intake of more operators will further accelerate this growth as Home Affairs delivers on our commitment to replace a manual, paper-based and insecure visa system with secure, world-class digital infrastructure to drive economic growth,” the minister added. PTI FH GSP GSP
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