JOHANNESBURG, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 11,144 tourists from China and India have obtained digital visas to South Africa through the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) since its launch on Feb. 11, South Africa's Department of Home Affairs said on Tuesday.
The government introduced the TTOS to enable tourists from China and India to easily apply for visas to visit South Africa. In a statement, Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber said the volume of applications has grown consistently from an average of 50 per day in March, to 135 per day in April, and to 210 per day in May.
"It is important to note that TTOS is still just a small-scale proof of concept. But after three months of operation, it is already clear that it has been a resounding success," said Schreiber.
"This amounts to almost a third of all tourists from China who visited South Africa last year. The success of TTOS demonstrates the enormous growth potential that we can unlock by rolling out a digital-only visa platform -- not only for group travel from these 65 partners, but for every tourist in the world," he said.
He said research shows that one new job is created for every 13 tourists who visit the country, suggesting that TTOS has already created 857 new tourism jobs since February with just one reform alone.
The TTOS visas ensure that potential tourists from those two target source markets digitally apply for visas within a matter of hours, as opposed to taking days, including visiting the offices of the South African government in those countries, according to Schreiber.
"In addition to shortly announcing a second intake of tour operators to further boost the number of group tours attracted through TTOS, we are on track to deliver a world-class Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system this year," the minister said.
"This system will completely digitalize and automate all tourism and short-stay visas, enabling every tourist on earth who wants to visit South Africa to instantly and securely obtain a digital visa. Not only will this eliminate fraud and inefficiency, but, as TTOS demonstrates beyond all doubt, it will amount to the single biggest reform to boost job creation in the tourism sector in a decade," he said.
South Africa appointed 65 tour operators from China, India and locally to facilitate group visa applications for tourists who intend to visit in groups. China and India are some of the key tourist source markets from which South Africa intends to lure more visitors.
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