St Petersburg: Russia is looking to boost tourism to African countries, with leaders at last week’s Russia-Africa Summit proposing visa-free travel between the states to make this a reality
Officials have also suggested more direct flights to make Afro-Russian travel easy.
According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Africa is a popular destination for Russian travellers.
“Expanding the geography of flights would allow tour operators to increase the range of outbound tourism offers. We are considering such options as flights to Tanzania to the island of Zanzibar and, of course, expanding flights to Tunisia and other countries,” said Dmitry Gorin, vice president of Russia’s tourism organisation.
Fruitless goals?
However, South Africa’s and Russia’s ailing state-owned aviation sectors might ground the initiative altogether.
SAA sold for less than a packet of cigarettes
Over the past decade, parastatal South African Airways (SAA) has been hollowed out mainly due to financial mismanagement, tender irregularities, and cash flow issues, so much so the airline is being sold to a private operator.
Just last week, the Competition Tribunal, the federal adjudicative body responsible for cases governing the country’s competition laws, approved a deal that could see SAA sold for less than a packet of cigarettes.
According to SA news site, The Citizen, the privately owned Takatso consortium is a giant leap closer to acquiring a controlling stake in the airline for ZAR51.
Areoflot’s flop
Similarly, SAA’s Russian counterpart Aeroflot has been beset by its own issues.
In a March report by Quartz, international sanctions had stalled imports of spares and essential aircraft components, making servicing Russian-owned planes impossible.
In some cases, mechanics were ordered to strip existing aircraft for parts. Service contracts were been canceled, and some planes were repossessed as Western powers continued to exert pressure on the country over the Ukrainian invasion.
