This can take the pleasure out of travel even before you have left your home town.
And can you believe this? The most expensive visa for South Africans is the Nigerian visa with fees ranging from R3000 to R6000 for a single trip. Makes me feel like never visiting our far off neighbours.
The worst is that with application fees in most cases being non-refundable if the visa is denied, travelling abroad has become a financial gamble for us poor Saffas.
A survey conducte by Travelstart – one of SA’s largest online travel agencies – highlights the concerns of South African travellers with over 80% saying they would travel more if there were less visa restrictions, The worst is that you have to pay for flights before applying for a visa and having no guarantee that it will be approved.
The list of countries that are visa-free for South African passport holders is as long as a tortoises ear. It’s only a handful of countries in South America, Southern Africa and South East Asia that will allow Saffas in without a visa. Turkey you can apply for on arrival and the Antarctic will also allow you in, if you feel so coldly inclined. The US, Europe, Northern Africa and Central/Southern Asia remain difficult to obtain visas for, and the visa application process often requires pre-booked flights.
At its recent board meeting The World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) resolved to urge governments to streamline visa processes to encourage flow of travellers around the world. Lets hope they make some headway.
In the mean time, Travelstart has introduced an insurance product called “Visa Denied Policy” to try and take some of the pain out of the visa application process. The policy covers travellers for the cost of their international flights booked through Travelstart in the event that their visa is denied.
Clever ploy to get people to book through Travelstart, we think, but you cannot rally fault the thinking, can you?