The Tourism Society welcomes the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne yesterday morning regarding the simplification of Visa applications for Chinese visitors to the UK. The new application process should go a long way to encouraging a large number of the one million Chinese tourists who currently visit other European destinations while avoiding Britain to now include us on their itineraries. Tourism Society Chairman David Curtis-Brignell commented: “France alone receives in excess of 25% more Chinese visitors than we do. This announcement is a significant step towards increasing the number of visitors to Britain from this important market and although it has been a long-time coming the industry must say a collective \”thank you\” to DCMS, the Home Office and the Chancellor for making it a reality.”
Grant Hearn, Travelodge CEO said: “It is great news for both the UK economy and our tourism industry that the Government has finally taken steps to streamline the visa application process for Chinese tourists.
We can now clearly showcase to the Chinese market that the UK is open for business, and we have a great chance of reaching the $100 billion bilateral trade target by 2015, which was agreed between the UK and Chinese Government last year.
This announcement will also certainly boost the job market, which is much needed to help get the economy back on track.
However to really unleash the true potential of this growing tourist market, the Government needs to extend its policy to all Chinese tourists and not the selected few.
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