Ease UK visa norms for Chinese tourists- UK retailers
by Michelle S - February 1, 2011
United Kingdom, 1st February: Several UK retailers are asking the UK government to simplify UK visa norms in order to help Chinese tourists come to the UK.
It’s being alleged that bureaucracy is posing a hurdle for Chinese shoppers wanting to come to the UK and as a result, many are choosing Milan and Paris for shopping. According to figures revealed by a financial services firm, Global Blue, retail spending by Chinese tourists in the UK accounted to almost £350m in the year 2010.
And if the UK government takes steps to simplify UK visa process, it can result in much higher revenue to the nation from the Chinese shoppers; argue UK’s leading retailers including Fortnum & Mason, Harrods and Selfridges.
UK retailers are warning the UK government to loosen immigration norms for Chinese.
Hence, Harrods has plans to have talks with the UK government regarding this issue and is getting support from a leading UK retailer group Walpole which sells as many as 160 leading brands like Jimmy Choo, Smythson and Asprey.
As per the current UK visa norms for Chinese tourists wanting to come to the UK, a Chinese national should submit a UK visa application form of 10 pages and must make a personal visit to any of the 12 named application centers situated in China.
The reason for such tedious UK visa process for Chinese nationals is because the UK does not hold the membership of the Schengen visa process working in other member states of the EU.
Meanwhile, nations like Berlin or Paris, which are members of the Schengen visa process, do not have such visa hassles for Chinese nationals.
Some of the major tour operators in China reveal that many of the Chinese tourists are being compelled to drop their plans of visiting the UK due to poor UK visa process (including tedious paper work and long processing times) and long queues, states Richard Dickson, chief executive of the New West End Company.
The year 2009 saw arrival of just 110,000 Chinese tourists coming to the UK while the total number of Chinese visiting the Schengen region during the same year was 2 million.
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