Visa Constraints, Border Bottlenecks Major Bane Against Tourism In Africa – Senchi Executive Director
CHIGOZIE AMADI
LAGOS – The continuous strict visa regime in Africa and the myriads of challenges at the land borders, especially within the West African region are two crisis dwindling tourism potential on the continent.
Mr. Nana Kwame Yeboah-Afari, the Executive Director at the Royal Senchi Resort, Akosombo, Ghana stated this on Thursday in an interview with journalists in Ghana.
According to Yeboah-Afari, the various policies by African governments were not encouraging for tourism, stressing that until some of these policies are changed, Africa would continue to witness the current drought in tourism.
Besides, Yeboah -Afari, called for collaboration, rather than competition among the West African states.
Recall that Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the Africa’s richest billionaire, had last month decried difficulties faced by investors travelling on the African continent.
He did say that he needed different 35 visas on his Nigerian passport, stressing that this alone was affecting the economic development of Africa.
Yeboah -Afari, however, said that Dangote was not alone in this challenge, maintaining that as a businessman, he equally faces such crises in Africa, especially within West Africa.
He said: “The recent complaints by Mr. Aliko Dangote on the challenge flying around Africa – the fact remains that he is not alone in this challenge. Visa issues on the continent are a major constraint and the crisis at the borders also call for concerns. This is not good enough for Africa if we want to promote tourism.
“I have had a lot of experiences going through various borders like Togo, Cote D’Ivoire and others. What I can say is that it is not pleasant. If you have money to throw around, you go through the borders easily, but for day-to-day people, it’s very difficult to navigate this.
“It is always good to see collaboration within Africans and I say this with a lot of passion because too often, we see a lot of competition among us when we should have collaborated and make our products bigger and it would be enough for everybody. It is in our collective interest to put together our resources to be able to host large meetings.”
He, however, said that hoteliers in Ghana and other West African countries are meeting to ensure some of the policy regimes are relaxed to encourage more tourists within the continent.
He enjoined West African governments to emulate their Southern African counterparts by collaborating with one and others.
Besides, speaking on the Royal Senchi Resort, Yeboah -Afari, declared that it was highly cost effective to keep the 35 acres facilities going.
According to him, some of the agricultural produce and dairy products for the resort are sourced in other African countries and Europe, which makes it more expensive to run.
