Botswana is about to experience a surge in Chinese tourists following the relaxation of VISA regulations, that is if trends from similar developments are anything to go by. When Morocco declared a VISA exception in June 2016 the number of Chinese travellers to the country zoomed by 440%, Tunisia’s Chinese arrivals surged 215% when they did the same in February 2017 and closer home Angola saw a surge of 85% when they simplified their VISA application procedures in January 2018. This was revealed by Olivier Ponti, Vice President of Insights for ForwardKeys, who presented his findings at the first Africa Leaders Forum organised by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in Cape Town on Thursday. These numbers should come like nice piece of music to Botswana policy makers, particularly after President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced a new move of offering VISA on Arrival for those coming to the country. The move that has received wide acclamation was due to be rolled out from November 24. And if at conception it targeted the Asian market, it tallies with the steps that President Masisi has been deliberately taking to win over Chinese investment. He insisted that he would prefer to see a…