SWAKOPMUND – The coastal tourism sector is urging the ministry of home affairs to deploy more officials or explore the possibility of exempting tourists arriving on cruise ships from face-to-face or physical inspections.
According to local tourism operators, they are losing out on lucrative revenue due to delays in immigration services offered to tourists on board cruise liners.
Instead, they propose relying on passenger manifests when dealing with passenger liners or more manpower as the sector readies itself to welcome about 66 passenger liners from October until April next year.
A total of 42 passenger liners, carrying an average of 2 000 tourists, docked last year during the same time when immigration officials cleared 26 353 guests upon arrival and over 39 000 upon departure from passenger liners docking and departing from Lüderitz and Walvis Bay.
According to the sector, the shortage of manpower and the absence of visa-on-arrival services at the port not only lead to unnecessary delays but also impede the industry from fully capitalising on the revenue potential offered by passenger liner services.
During a consultative engagement with the Namibian Tourism Board, Namport and Nampol, the sector highlighted that the lack of personnel could cause delays of up to eight hours during the clearing process.
Boeta Mouton, one of the stakeholders, explained that during the recent arrival of the large cruise liner, Queen Mary, only four officers were available to process over 2 000 passengers who disembarked from the cruise liner.
“This resulted in an eight-hour delay, and some of us had to refund passengers because they were unable to participate in the activities they had booked for their one-day stay. This revenue stream is lucrative, and we need to improve our approach to receive better reviews and attract more cruise liners, rather than losing money,” Mouton stated.
Gerald Kolb from Charly’s Dessert Tours suggested that tourists, especially those on cruise liners, should be exempted from physical inspections. Instead, he proposed that they be counted before disembarking or returning to the cruise liners.
“Previously, officials used to go out to the passenger liners on tugboats to conduct inspections before the cruise liners reached the port. This method helped avoid delays. Why can’t we reconsider that arrangement?” he questioned.
Acting chief immigration officer Aina Emvula acknowledged that clearing passengers arriving on cruise liners has been challenging at the Walvis Bay port, as the process is currently manual.
“Due to the absence of an electronic border management system, officers are unable to identify unwanted individuals through face-to-face inspections. We are currently limited to stamping documents and lack the necessary systems to identify prohibited immigrants,” she explained.
Emvula also noted that visas are not issued upon arrival at the port, causing many tourists to remain on board, as they are unable to disembark and explore coastal tourist attractions.
“We processed over 26 000 passengers between October of last year and April this year upon arrival – and over 36 000 upon departure from the ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz,” she elaborated. However, she mentioned that discussions are ongoing to include the harbour immigration office in the visa-on-arrival arrangement to address the current challenges.
“Some passenger liners have previously expressed a willingness to fly out immigration officers – for instance to Cape Town – to initiate inward inspections before the ships arrive at our ports. However, this idea was not embraced by our superiors. Nevertheless, we are actively seeking solutions to address these bottlenecks,” she concluded.