THE UNWTO aims to bring down to 50 per cent this year the percentage of the world’s population requiring a traditional visa prior to travel, from 62 per cent last year.
UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai told the Daily that this is a “realistic” aim, given that countries are now realising that technology can help ease visa facilitation, while there is real correlation between eased travel restrictions and increased number of jobs and economic growth.
The percentage of the world population requiring a visa last year was already an improvement over 2008, when the figure was 77 per cent. Last year, 19 per cent of the world’s population was able to enter a destination without a visa, while 16 per cent could receive a visa-on-arrival (VOA), compared with 17 per cent and six per cent in 2008.
“We’re not saying ‘abolish the visa’. We’re saying why don’t you do VOA or e-visas…If there are undesirable people, they can be stopped (with today’s sophisticated technology), but don’t stop people because they are ‘unwanted’ nationalities, especially if these are such big markets, like Brazil, China or India,” said Rifai.
UNWTO has launched a Visa Openness index to help governments ease visa facilitation. ASEAN was found to be the friendliest region, where only 12 per cent of the world’s population requires a traditional visa prior to arrival.
“Any government which are now a bit more convinced that they need to look at their visa system can access our database.
“Sometimes it’s just as simple as saying, can you please improve your website, make it more friendly and understandable,” said Rifai.
Read more stories in TTG Asia-ITB Berlin 2015 Daily
