Freedom to Travel
‘Freedom to Travel’ means ensuring that people have the right to cross international borders safely and efficiently for tourism purposes. It means smarter visa processes, more visa waiver agreements and trusted traveller programmes.
Of course, we recognise that there is a need for countries to maintain border security. But there needs to be a better balance between sovereign security concerns and the needs of international leisure and business travellers to pass through immigration with the minimum of hassle.
We have recently seen unprecedented changes and improvements in visa facilitation around the world. More and more countries are taking deliberate steps to ease visa restrictions in order to increase visitor numbers and improve competitiveness. Yet despite these positive moves there are still too many nationalities who find it too complex and too difficult to cross borders as international tourists.