{"id":41128,"date":"2026-07-30T15:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41128"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:24:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:24:56","slug":"sadc-targets-border-posts-in-push-to-boost-regional-tourism","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sadc-targets-border-posts-in-push-to-boost-regional-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"SADC targets border posts in push to boost regional tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat has convened a joint consultative workshop focused on transforming regional border posts into tourist-friendly entry points and enhancing customer service standards for border officials across the bloc.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, supported by the Joint Action NaturAfrica\/Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management Programme, a collaborative effort funded by the European Union and Germany\u2019s GIZ, aims to streamline travel across Southern Africa and drive sustainable tourism growth under the SADC Tourism Programme 2020\u20132030.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Border personnel serve as the primary point of contact for international visitors. Recognising their critical role in shaping a destination&#8217;s first impression, the workshop brought together key regional stakeholders and immigration officers to address travel bottlenecks, improve cross-border facilitation, and build stronger customer service frameworks at high-traffic entry points.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Improving border access and reducing processing delays are seen as vital steps toward establishing Southern Africa as a seamless, single-destination market, boosting regional connectivity and supporting local tourism-dependent economies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/SADC&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34336,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-41128","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SADC hosts border post workshop to elevate tourist experience","published_date":"2026-07-30 15:22:53","news_description":"SADC hosts border post workshop to elevate tourist experience","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41129,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41128\/revisions\/41129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}