The United States has expanded the list of nationalities eligible for visa-free entry under its Visa Waiver Program.
The United States has announced plans to expand its visa-free travel regime, aiming to increase tourist flows and welcome a more diverse range of visitors.
Obtaining visas is a costly and tedious process for many travellers unless they are offered on arrival or online.
The move is expected to facilitate eased entry for travelers visiting the United States for leisure or business purposes.
By removing the obstacles brought about by visa requirements, several countries are seeing increased tourist arrivals.
The United States has expanded its Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to facilitate entry for eligible citizens from various additional countries.
The VWP exempts nationals of select countries from requiring visas when visiting the United States.
Under the expanded VWP the following nations will now be able to enjoy visa-free entry to the United States for up to 90 days.
Therefore, these nations, including nationals of 30 other countries, will be able to visit the US without visas, under the visa-free entry agreement.
Unfortunately, South Africans and Cameroonians will still need to obtain US visas as they are not included in the list of eligible countries.
 Business Today states the initiative aims to reverse the reduced international visitor arrivals to the United States.
Furthermore, it aims to attract more visitors from select nations.
By extending eased entry to citizens of additional countries the US hopes to reduce the percentage of international arrivals categorized as “Rest of the World” travelers, from 37% to 35%.
There seems to be a global trend for countries to open up their borders in recent times.
Countries in Africa including Kenya ,  Malawi, and Rwanda have eased entry for visitors by removing visa restrictions for all or many nationalities.
This has helped the economies of such countries since higher international visitor numbers have been reported.
Moreover, adding barriers to entry is not advisable since this deters visitors from traveling to places.
Visa applications take time, and money and often come with a great deal of frustration for travelers.
Unless visas are available at the point of entry or online, visa requirements can deter visitors from traveling to countries.
In some instances, Â airlines are also reluctant to operate scheduled flights to destinations that have visa restrictions in placeÂ
Hence visa requirements may affect the ability of airlines to fill their flights.
That said,  Namibia has recently announced its intention to impose visa requirements on passport holders from countries that do not grant visa-free entry to its citizens.
