Uncategorized
Single tourists Visa delayed
The use of a single visa in East African countries has been expected is fail as partner states have been hesitating on balancing the laws and regulations. The plan of using a single Tourist Visa had to be started in November 2006 but all this time the document has not been in existence.
It has been discovered that the partner states have to set up a necessary infrastructure to assist EAC bound tourists to utilize the regional tourist visa system.
ICT systems and managing of immigration management systems to be used by the partner states to connect with the border points and embassies. All the participating states have to have refined ICT equipments in their immigration departments to be able to exchange security data and to detect fake visas.
The only country that is ready has been Rwanda and it has the necessary ICT equipments and it has been waiting for the other member states to get theirs because it cannot use it alone. The EAC council on Tourism and Wildlife Management has been disappointed because the process has been over delayed.
The council has therefore told the member states that are ready for the system to continue creatively under the principle of variable geometry
In 2011, the EAC said the single tourist visa that allows them to travel to Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania will start on 1st July 2015 but Ms Mukuraliza has said they might not be ready by that time.
The system of having a single EAC visa has led to the pleading of tourism boards of member states requesting for the one visa to speed up the marketing of the region as one tourist destination.
The visa will be issued by any member state’s embassy abroad. The single visa will reduce on the time spent by tourists moving from one embassy to another applying for different visa to travel to the East African countries.
Though EAC leaders have been showing the love for the tourists to have one visa to travel to their countries, little has been done.
The low effort for the member states to start using the single visa has delayed the community to move to the next level of amalgamation yet the visa will make East Africa one of the top tourist destinations in Africa and the world at large.
