The Ministry of Home Affairs' groundbreaking digital platform for a reliable tour operator scheme (TTO) is now live. The platform promotes tourism from major source markets in India and China by allowing reviewed and approved tour operators to submit group applications for large tour groups from these two countries . This addresses longstanding obstacles to tourism growth. This has made the issuance of visas for tourists from these countries over time due to their inability to handle long queues, red tapes and group applications.
To explain the scale of change: Before the TTO was created, China had only two South African missions and two missions in India, and two countries that wanted to come to South Africa as tourists. served the 2.8 billion people living in the area. . However, under the new TTOS Digital First System, tourists from India and China using approved tour operators no longer need to visit missions, and will not fill out a single form, You don't have to queue and receive your visa digitally within 3 days.
In 2023, South Africa received only 37,000 tourists from China and just 79,000 from India. By increasing visa efficiency and security through TTO, Home Affairs looks forward to enabling much faster tourism growth from these two rapidly growing source markets.
Home Minister Dr. Leon Schreiber said: “The fact that home affairs will conceptualize and implement TTOs within six months demonstrates our commitment to embracing digital transformation and serving as an economic enabler to create jobs. Research shows that each Twelvenew tourist attracted to TTO can create one new job in South Africa. This demonstrates the power of the digital transformation agenda in the interior to create jobs. It's there.”
Minister Schreiber added: We would also like to thank Presidential Minister Khumbudzo ntshaveni and Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille for helping to deploy this innovative new system at a record time. This demonstrates the power of national unity government cooperation in pursuing apex priorities to grow the economy and create jobs. ”
Find the Minister's speech given in Parliament on February 11, 2025 during the 2025 debate.
home_affairs_walks_the_talk_on_digital_transformation.pdf
