Brussels, 15/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) has welcomed the recent announcement by UK Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer) George Osborne that the United Kingdom intends to make it easier and faster for Chinese tourists to obtain visas. “In Europe, the UK remains the salient example of how not to handle incoming visitors. But this is undoubtedly a move in the right direction”, says ETOA in a press release.
During his visit to Beijing, Osborne announced on 14 October that he had informed the Chinese leaders of new measures to simplify and speed up the visa application process for visitors from China in order to boost tourism and trade. Initially, a “super priority” visa service will allow Chinese business people to receive their visas within 24 hours. The second stage will be a pilot project to select the Chinese travel agencies that will be enabled to request a UK visa for their clients simply by completing the form used for Schengen visas. The formalities involved in applying for a UK visa are particularly long and onerous: where the other EU countries have a three-page form, already felt by tourism operators to be demanding, the UK form is eight pages long, ETOA points out. The result is that the UK has relatively fewer tourists, especially from the emerging economies, such as China, Russia, India, Ukraine and Indonesia, than other European countries. The tourism industry has long been calling for an easing of visa procedures in the European Union, a call that has been seen as perfectly legitimate by the European Commission, whose aim is to make Europe the world's top tourist destination. (IL/transl.fl)