{"id":834420,"date":"2025-08-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=834420"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:00:16","slug":"another-visa-boost-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/834420\/another-visa-boost-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Another visa boost for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, has announced the launch of phase two of the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS), with the department introducing a series of changes to the visa system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department created the TTOS to address the long-standing challenges tour operators face in bringing large tour groups from the growing markets in India and China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was designed to replace manual, inefficient, paper-based processes requiring prospective tourists to travel long distances to apply for a visa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visas would also take weeks to process and require a return trip for collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new online system allows tour operators to upload applications online and get digital outcomes, within 24 hours on average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The selected tour operators agree with the department to assume responsibility for the tourists they bring to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schreiber has announced that phase two of the scheme adds another 45 vetted and approved tour operators to the existing 65 operators that have used the programme since February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TTOS has already seen an additional 25,000 tourists from India and China in South Africa, which the visa delays would have deterred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from Operation Vulindlela, a joint initiative from the Presidency and National Treasury to grow the economy, shows that one formal sector job is created by every 13 tourists that visit the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, it is believed that the TTOS has already created over 1,900 new jobs in the first phase alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase to 110 tour operators is expected to help boost growth in the economy during a time of extreme economic headwinds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTTOS demonstrates the power of our digital transformation agenda to enable economic growth and create jobs,\u201d said Schreiber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that we have attracted over 25,000 tourists in just six months working with a small handful of tour operators, confirms the enormous potential of growing this digital-first approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New visas coming<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The TTOS is one of the several visa initiatives the Department of Home Affairs is trying to introduce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department will also launch the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ETA will fully automate and digitise the visa process from beginning to end, allowing outcomes to be decided within seconds. Machine learning technology will be used to eliminate fraud.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of this, the department is also launching new dedicated visa schemes for events and creative industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STAGES, short for Screen Talent and Global Entertainment Scheme<\/em>, is aimed at simplifying visa access for film production companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after South Africa lost a massive Netflix production, which cost the country R400 million in lost income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, MEETS will ensure that visa applications for international attendees at significant conferences, sporting events, exhibitions, and other global events will be processed online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is the current President of the G20, and will host world leaders from China, the EU, the UK and potentially the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach reform we implement must be viewed as an individual piece of the bigger digital transformation puzzle we are building,\u201d said Schreiber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our work is guided by our vision to deliver Home Affairs @ home, by building digital channels that enable both South Africans and legitimate travellers to obtain services online, from the comfort of their own homes.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s visa system is underoing a large series of changes, with Home Affairs announcing the second phase of its Trusted Tour Operator Scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":663867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2524],"class_list":["post-834420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-home-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834423,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834420\/revisions\/834423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}