Demand for visas for the Schengen destinations are surging in popularity in the SA market.
According to visa agency VFS Global, this is a clear thread among a number of other emerging trends in travel – namely health concerns, sustainability-consciousness and data privacy requirements.
During a recent presentation by VFS Global’s Regional Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, Hariprasad Viswanathan, the company outlined the travel trends it saw in 2023.
VFS found that the Schengen destinations of Italy and Netherlands were very popular travel destinations for South African travellers.
Strong growth in travel from South Africa since the pandemic has seen a surge in visa applications. Total applications January to May 2023 have exceeded the 2021 volume for the whole year, and are already at 70% of the 2022 whole-year volume.
Four discernible demand trends are contactless traveller experiences, personalised services which prioritise health and safety, sustainable travel and data privacy.
After the pandemic, travellers have grown more vigilant of personal hygiene and health during travel. This has driven the demand for contactless and DIY technologies, as well as for exclusive, individual, personalised visa application options. VFS’s Premium Lounge, Visa At Your Doorstep and tourism desks with remote application and consultation capabilities have thus grown more popular.
The demand for contactless travel at international borders has increased, and innovative travel technologies such as AI, machine learning and data analytics have been used to create Smart Borders which are to be introduced a few years from now.
Due to technical innovation in the industry, travellers are already able to complete visa processing and some, but not all, international border crossings with a paperless trail.
Lastly, as more personal information becomes digitised to make travel more efficient, travellers are increasingly focused on protecting their personal data. In order to protect clients’ information, VFS complies fully with various data localisation and privacy and protection laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation, POPI and ISO 23.
