Second Application Window Opens For Trusted Tour Operator Scheme

Source: ©Robert Mullan via 123RF

The department has welcomed the "overwhelmingly positive response," highlighting the significant potential of visa reforms to boost job creation and attract more tourists to South Africa.

Operators interested in applying have 30 days to submit their applications through the dedicated online portal on the department's website, with no paper-based applications being accepted.

Applications will be assessed by an interdepartmental team utilising artificial intelligence tools to vet and select the successful participants.

Digital transformation of visa processes

"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," he said.

"In the weeks since TTOS was launched, over 2,000 additional tourists from China and India, who would otherwise not have come to our country owing to previous visa inefficiencies, have come to our country.

"Even more encouraging is the trend of applications received. On the first day of operation, 12 February, 21 applications were received.

"On 3 April, this figure had grown to 165 per day and shows no sign of slowing down. 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," Minister Schreiber concluded.