Ilse van Schalkwyk, Chief Director: Economic Sector Support at the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, joined Benito Vergotine on The Honest Truth.

Listen to the conversation here: No more unabridged birth certificate needed

 Scrapping of unabridged birth certificates welcomed; campaign planned to drive awareness

 We welcome the recent announcement by the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, that the requirement for unabridged birth certificates for visitors travelling to South Africa is officially scrapped.

The tourism sector remains the backbone of the Western Cape economy, supporting over 300 000 direct and indirect jobs in our province alone thanks to the millions of tourists who flock to the region annually to enjoy some of the most scenic and breath-taking locations that the globe has to offer.

We encourage any action taken by the Department of Home Affairs to make it easier to trade with, and visit the Western Cape.

Unfortunately, the well-intentioned but poorly considered requirement for unabridged birth certificates resulted in nothing short of a crisis in the tourism industry in South Africa and the Western Cape. It also caused considerable distress to families wishing to travel to and from South Africa since its implementation in 2014.

To ensure the impact of the unabridged birth certificates requirement is immediately reduced ahead of the upcoming tourist season, the Cape Town and the Western Cape tourism industry will be launching a collaborative marketing campaign in direct response, and in celebration of the long-awaited change in the unabridged birth certificates requirements.

The marketing campaign, “Come to Cape Town & the Western Cape, where kids stay free!”, will launch in January 2020. The campaign will entice families to book a holiday in Cape Town and the Western Cape over a specified period. Participating partners will offer all children free accommodation over this period. Terms and conditions will apply.

Founding partners of the campaign are Cape Town Tourism, SATSA, FEDHASA Cape, Tsogo Sun, The President Hotel and Wesgro.

This campaign is not limited to the accommodation sector only. All businesses that wish to celebrate the removal of the unabridged birth certificate rules are welcome to join the campaign. Tourism trade who would like to be a part of our campaign can send an email to nowherebetter@wesgro.co.za for further details.

There is nowhere better in the world to come for a family holiday than Cape Town and the Western Cape. We encourage all our tourism partners to be part of this campaign.