LEISURE and business
travellers are being forced
to cancel trips to Greece,
Portugal and Spain because
of a lack of available visa
application appointments.
Michele Kendall, md
of Visalogix, says while
application centres require
15 calendar days to process
an application, travellers
have to wait a number of
weeks for an appointment.
Jaendre Terblanche,
owner of Visas Zone, points
out that while the Greek
Embassy requires a 15-day
lead time for applications,
business travellers are
often only told about
business trips at the last
minute.
Bobbi Markantonis,
manager of Claudia’s Travel,
had two clients book a trip
to Athens departing May
13. The clients tried to
make an appointment on
April 30, but the earliest
available date was May
14. As a result, they had
to cancel their trip. Bobbi
wrote to the embassy to
negotiate an earlier date
but received no response.
Michele added that midyear
was always a busy
period for the industry.
While agents and visa
companies double up on
their workload to manage
the influx, visa application
centres and embassies
do not.
