NEW E-VISA RULES UNDER REVIEW FOLLOWING MAJOR COMPLAINTS BY TOURISTS AND THE TOURISM INDUSTRY
(Posted 06th August 2015)
There is growing indication now that the new e-Visa rules imposed by the Kenyan government, which will effective 01st of September require all visitors to have their Visa in advance – Visa on arrival will under these rules no longer be issued and travelers without Visa may be denied boarding by airlines – could be suspended.
When breaking the news here a small but vocal section cried immediately foul, even suggesting that the article was misleading, only to later on concede that indeed the truth was told when exposing the hasty government decision and its likely impact on tourism arrivals.
A significant number of complaints have already been received here over the slow pace of processing e-Visa and that the maximum period given of 7 days has in many cases been exceeded, prompting travelers to get their Visa on arrival as usual for as long as that facility still exists.
Senior tourism stakeholders have quietly suggested to this correspondent that they have taken the fight to government, equating the decision with the ill-fated imposition of VAT two years ago, which cause some serious damage to the Kenyan tourism industry at a time when arrivals were beginning to nosedive. ‘For obvious reasons you cannot use my name because this is a sensitive issue we are discussing with government right now. When Britain removed some of their harsh language from their travel advice for Kenya, things started to look up and additional charters from Germany and Italy have reversed the trend of falling arrivals. But with more tourists come also the logistical challenges of processing e-Visa in time. There is a bottleneck no doubt and we do not want to lose visitors because of bureaucratic obstacles. Our proposal is to keep the Visa on arrival facility open alongside the e-Visa process. Bona fide tourists should be able to get Visa when they arrive in Nairobi or Mombasa just like Egypt is also making that exception. I must also add that you were right when you cautioned about the loss of last minute bookings. There was some doubt but it has now been established that it could be as much as ten percent of our visitors who decide at the very last minute where to spend their vacation. Tickets often are heavily discounted just to fill remaining seats and we should not deny such tourists entry and push them to Thailand or Sri Lanka or even Uganda where they get Visa on arrival’.
Perhaps some common sense will prevail in the end and the tourism industry can get their way to remove a potentially big obstacle to fast-tracking the sector’s recovery. And as the saying goes, Quod Erat Demonstrandum – it is always good not just to know that one was right but to hear it from those who really matter in Kenya’s tourism industry today.
For information about Destination Kenya click on www.magicalkenya.com or visit www.kws.go.ke
One Response
The current VISA system worked very well, The immigration staff at the international airports in Nairobi and Mombasa is very efficient and very fast. Visitors never had too wait long and the whole process never takes more then a couple of minutes. We never had any complaints from visitors. It is actually one of the few things in Kenya tourism that works very well. Now we abandon that system and replace it with an online system and processing takes up to a week! I always thought the goal of going digital is too improve efficiency and improve the service for customers but here the opposite is happening. What is truly scandalous is that visitors who’s VISA is refused will loose the fee. This is going to hurt Kenya tourism and create lots of problems. Why not run parallel systems?