The South African Tourism office today said the visa delay issue has been resolved and applications will now be cleared in five working days. Visa delays had led to cancellation of about 60% of tours to South Africa till April. The delay stretching to over 30 days had affected both leisure and business tours.
"We are happy to inform you that the recent issue with visa delay has effectively been resolved. As per the VFS website (visa application service provider) the process of visa clearance will now only take five working days,'' South Africa Tourism announced in its June newsletter.
Over 9.6 million tourists visited South Africa last year and number of Indian visitors rose 5.5% to 1.12 lakh in 2013. India is the seventh biggest source of tourists to South Africa and its tourism body holds regular trade shows and marketing campaigns in India.
South African High Commission, New Delhi, had said issue of visa was impacted due to technical problems.
