India’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Virendra Gupta, has stated that he is keen to see initiatives taken to support a doubling in tourism trade between South Africa and India over the next five years.

Tourism between the two countries almost doubled over the past five years, he said at a seminar in Sandton late last year, adding that there remained scope for further growth.

Indian tourists to South Africa were expected to breach the 100 000 mark in 2012, and Gupta hoped for an equal number of South African tourists to India for the year.

But to achieve sustained growth, he said that there was a need for “innovative” approaches in promoting tourism to India.

The High Commission of India recently embarked on visa outsourcing and has selected a company that would open four offices across South Africa to make the process of obtaining an Indian visa easier.

To further encourage tourism to one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, India last month also lifted the provision relating to the required two-month gap between two visits of a foreign national on a tourist visa.

However, nationals of Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as Stateless persons, would still be required to incorporate a two-month gap before re-entry on a tourist visa.

Gupta pointed out that tourism between South Africa and India, which boasts 482 wildlife sanctuaries, played an important role in the commercial and trade partnership between the nations.

“When Indian tourists come here, they spend, creating net revenue and inflow of foreign exchange, while stimulating growth in the services sector,” Gupta told Engineering News.

He said he was pleased with the tourism growth achieved, despite the recession, pointing out that India and South Africa were more affordable tourist destinations than the US or many European countries, which meant that travellers opted to visit each other’s countries.

Meanwhile, Tourism India director Manas Rnjan Pattanaik told delegates that, with four new international airports and 32 regional airports under renovation, India’s tourism sector was poised for further growth.

This was evident in statistics released by India’s Ministry of Tourism, which revealed that the country’s foreign exchange earnings grew by 16.7% to $16.56-billion in 2011.

Similarly, foreign tourist arrivals to the country were up by 8.9% to 6.29-million in 2011.