SA REGULATIONS ON MOTORISTS ANOTHER SETBACK FOR TOURISM

MAHAMBA – There are fears that the new regulations aimed at motorists crossing the border into the country, from South Africa, will cause disruption to the tourism industry.

South Africa has introduced new measures to weed out cross-border crime, especially car smuggling into neighbouring states.
The new regulations will require motorists travelling from that country into Swaziland and other neighbouring states to bring along documentation to prove ownership of their vehicles (blue book), with effect from December 1, 2015.

Darren Raw, Managing Director at Swazi Trails, said the tourism industry would be hard hit by the new regulations.

Regulations

He described the regulations as a classical case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, when taking into consideration the efforts done by the states regionally to encourage closer cooperation, especially in promoting tourism.

“The rules practically make it hard to travel. I think in the short-term it is going to have a major impact and in the long term it is going to increase the constraints on tourism,” Raw said.

He said the rules would definitely affect decision-making for tourists intending to cross borders.
“People may be tempted to change decisions when they suddenly realise that they will have to acquire a lot of things in order to be able to cross the border. The other thing is that they will get frustrated and begin to rant.

“The ranting will not be about the requirements at the border but they would be saying, it has become difficult to get into Swaziland,” explained Raw.
Colonel Leonard Hlathi, Spokesperson of the Mpumalanga South African Police Service, said the new measures were strictly enforced to curb criminal activity between neighbouring states.

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