THE UK this week announced a number of measures to simplify visa application processes for China visitors, an increasingly lucrative source market that contributed 262 million pounds (US$418.4 million) in the London Luxury Quarter last year.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a five-day trade mission, where he unveiled a new pilot scheme that will allow selected Chinese travel consultants to apply for UK visas by submitting the EU’s Schengen visa form.
Currently, Chinese travellers can apply for a single visa for passage to most of Europe, but travel to the UK requires a separate application. The new move will spare travel consultants taking tourists to the UK and other parts of Europe the hassle of submitting two forms.
The UK government will also introduce a new 24-hour “super priority” visa service next summer, and is mulling the expansion of its VIP mobile visa service that is available only in Shanghai and Beijing at the moment. As part of this service, visa teams go to applicants to collect completed forms and biometric data, with the whole process taking less than five minutes in total.
According to the British government, 210,000 visas were issued to visiting Chinese nationals last year.
Mark Henderson, vice-chairman, UK China Visa Alliance, commented: “Chinese tourism is vital to ‘Brand Britain’ across luxury, retail and hospitality sectors and if the visa process were streamlined, could boost the economy annually by 1.2 billion pounds per year. With these high-spending travellers keen to not only come to holiday but also forge long-term relationships through business investments and acquiring property, it is now more important than ever to help make it as easy as possible for Chinese tourists to visit the UK.”
Figures from London Luxury Quarter, which encompasses 42 luxury streets across Mayfair, Piccadilly and St James, show that Chinese travellers spend 1,656 pounds per transaction on average. This makes the Chinese traveller the second highest spending nationality after Qataris, who ring up 1,788 pounds per transaction.
