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Senegal's president
Macky Sall (when he was newly-elected) salutes supporters after his inauguration in Dakar on April 2, 2012.
(Joe Penney/Reuters)
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Senegal has scrapped visa
requirements for foreign visitors and will slash taxes on air fares as it seeks
to revive a tourism sector crippled by high costs and a regional Ebola
outbreak.
The cost and administrative hassle
of visas, coupled with taxes on air tickets, led to a fall in the number of
visitors to the country. The new measure on visa-free travel
will come into effect on May 1, President Macky Sall said in an address to the
nation.
Sall also announced that government
taxes on air fares would be cut by half in a bid to make Senegal a more
competitively priced destination. It was not clear when the taxes on air fares
would be cut.
Many hotels along Senegal's
coastline that were once full of French visitors closed early this tourist
season as fears over an Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Guinea and nearby
Liberia and Sierra Leone came on top of a gradual decline in the industry.
Senegal recorded one case of Ebola
last year but prevented any further spread.
Senegal is looking for a strategic partner to
relaunch its indebted state carrier Senegal Airlines ahead of the opening of a
new international airport next year as it seeks to become a hub for air travel
in West Africa.
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