KUWAIT: Ambassador of South Africa to Kuwait Mzolisa Bona speaks during a tourism seminar he hosted at his residence yesterday. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: Ambassador of South Africa to Kuwait Mzolisa Bona hosted a tourism seminar yesterday at his residence in Mishref, which was attended by representatives from various travel agencies. Around 1,400 Kuwaitis visited South Africa in 2016 for tourism purposes. “We also issued business, medical and education visas,” he said.

The South African embassy regularly holds tourism events in Kuwait to encourage people from Kuwait to visit the country. “This is in addition to cultural cooperation and education exchange events that we organize during the calendar year. We want this embassy to be proactive,”

Bona said. The envoy also lauded the embassy’s streamlined visa service that reduced processing time from one week to just three days. “South Africa is an attractive place to visit. We want this information to be available to our visitors, especially at the onset of summer because we want an increase of tourism from this part of the world,” he added. Bona said some Kuwaitis have invested in the hospitality industry in South Africa, including a company that bought an exclusive beachfront resort. “We are happy that Kuwaitis are investing in our country. Last year, our deputy minister visited Kuwait, while an official from the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters visited South Africa. Currently, we are concluding negotiations on joint bilateral commissions. Once this is done, the foreign minister of Kuwait will go to South Africa for an inaugural ceremony. Several delegations from the trade and industry sector in South Africa recently visited Kuwait to promote business. I also paid a visit to the minister of commerce and industry in Kuwait to facilitate a visit of our minister of trade and commerce to Kuwait this year,” Bona said

By Ben Garcia