Dubai: Visa might become part of the history or remain just a credit card brand in future when governments worldwide starts waiving visas as a permit to enter their territories while the global tourism industry shifts gear from a visa-restricted regime to a visa-free environment which is paving way more people to travel globally.
The good news is that the world might one day become a visa-free world. But the bad news is, it might take years, if not ages.
Although terror incidents, political unrest, disasters — both man-made and natural — and travel advisories are creating hindrances — forcing governments to introduce strict visa restrictions, the world, nevertheless, is moving ahead towards a more relaxed visa regime due to globalisation and economic necessity, officials say.
“Protection of the borders is a right and duty of governments, but it [travel] doesn’t have to be [made] that difficult for tourists,” Dr Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), told Gulf News.
“Despite great strides made in recent years, travellers’ mobility is still much limited by complicated, time consuming and expensive visa procedures.”
In 2012, over one billion international tourists travelled the world for the first time in a single year. “The growth of air transport is intrinsically connected to the expansion of tourism, an expansion well set to continue in the future — by 2030, UNWTO forecasts international tourist numbers to reach 1.8 billion, 52 per cent of which will arrive at the visited destinations by air,” he said.
Time frame
“There will be a time when people will travel across borders without visa restrictions. However, it might happen during our children’s or grand-children’s time. I don’t have an exact time-frame, but what I can tell is that it is going to happen and we are moving towards that slowly and surely.”
More than 1.03 billion travels were recorded last year, meaning 1.03 billion times people crossed borders to stay outside their countries for at least a night — on business or pleasure, he said.
More than 43 million new travellers are entering the travel and tourism market every year due to increased mobility in the emerging markets and developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“This is the age of human mobility and travel is no longer a human need. It’s human right,” Dr Rifai said.
At the UNWTO Ministerial Forum, Dr Rifai urged the countries to deregulate air transportation and visa system and make them easy to process — that he says, will help more people to travel.
“Visa regimes need to be regulated to make them easy to obtain,” Dr Rifai said. “Dubai is a great example of visa deregulation. They make it appear so easy and efficient — that I think others should follow.
