South Africa’s travel and tourism company Tourvest has introduced a unique new product designed to stimulate the inbound tourism market by providing foreign visitors with a range of free services, including instant no-fuss value-added tax (VAT) refunds, the listed company said on Monday.
Furthermore, the company will, through the scheme dubbed Traversa, provide discounts at participating suppliers and access to a 24/7 multilingual concierge call centre.
Traversa has been approved by the South African Revenue Service, and has been exclusively endorsed by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.
The scheme is based on a swipe card, which will be issued with an explanatory brochure to international passengers on arrival at the airport.
The card, which will be administered by a major credit-card technology company, keeps an electronic record of all transactions at participating suppliers.
Upon departure, the tourist swipes the card at a Traversa machine at the airport and submits it to the VAT refund administrator. The applicable VAT refund is calculated and, after the obligatory checks, is immediately transferred to the cardholder’s account, or issued on the spot as a cheque.
“This streamlining of the VAT-refund process — no forms to fill in, no waiting, no fuss — is obviously a major benefit to the tourist. But there are also other advantages,” Tourvest’s Ian Meltzer said.
“Users will get a cash discount at the participating stores and restaurants, as well as round-the-clock call-centre support. In addition, they’ll know that a percentage of their purchases will be donated to charities and grassroots development trusts in South Africa.”
He added that the programme will give South Africa a unique new tourism marketing tool that will help the country position itself ahead of rival destinations.
South Africa currently has about 1,9-million inbound airport arrivals per year. The average spend per tourist is just under R10 000, giving a total of R18,5-billion per year. — I-Net Bridge