Ministers have bowed to pressure from West End retailers and agreed to explore fresh ways to make it easier for high spending Chinese visitors to apply for a UK visa.
The Government revealed today it will initiate talks with major tour operators in China about a new streamlined system that will let tourists from there submit only one set of visa application paperwork for their tours to Europe.
Under current rules Chinese travellers, most of whom travel on organised trips, must apply for a separate UK visa if they want London on the itinerary.
By contrast, all 26 members of the “Schengen” group of continental countries — including France, Italy, Germany and Spain — can be visited on a separate single “Euro-visa”.
West End bosses claim this “border bureaucracy” and the hassle of two applications deters many Chinese people from visiting London. They estimate this loses Britain £1.2 billion in annual tourism spending as a result. Immigration minister Mark Harper told the Standard he hoped tour operators will act as a conduit for applications.
He said: “The aim would be getting the information and biometric details that we and the Schengen countries require to two sets of governments in a way that gives travellers a much easier experience. To the traveller it would look like a one-stop shop.”
He was speaking ahead of a conference in central London organised by the UK China Visa Alliance, a body that represents London retailers and tourism bodies. The Alliance gave the proposal a cautious welcome but said it fell well short of their demand for a truly “seamless” application process.
Retailers said they were concerned that the proposal would load too much of the paperwork on tour operators, who would need to oversee the two applications once they had received the documentation from travellers, without offering them any incentive.
It would also exclude independent travellers — often the wealthiest — who do not book through tour operators.
Mark Henderson of Savile Row tailors Gieves & Hawkes, who chaired today’s conference, said: “If the Government’s proposals work they’ll be very welcome. But we also need to address those high net worth visitors who don’t use tours or the premium visa service.”
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Alison Couper, of accommodation website Hotels.com, said: “Concerns have been growing that the UK could lose out to other countries if the Government does not make it easier for Chinese tourists to visit the country.”
Home Office staff believe that retail bosses are overstating the hurdles, and point out that last year the number of UK visas issued to Chinese nationals rose seven per cent, with almost 300,000 processed. They say the Border Agency has implemented a number of reforms, including the so called “passport pass back” scheme that allows applicants to hold on to their passports while their visas are being processed.
This means they can travel or apply for another visa if they need to, reducing the time it takes to get two visas.
