Chinese tourists continue to pile into visa-problem-free Paris and Hong Kong investor KAI Holdings buys the Champs Élysées Marriott freehold for £345million. Could Paris' £500million Intercontinental Grand be next on the Chinese list as IHG continues its disposal and management only policy and the UK reviews its visa restrictions?
Tourist industry experts reckon we could treble our Chinese visitors if we relaxed our visa restrictions – which are currently resulting in more Chinese tourists visiting European cities than London.
With the Chinese Premier in London this week we should act now and boost our tourist business and boost our economy. See our economy soar with an extra one million visitors and watch IHG shares when the Home Office eventually acts!
With some of the most attractive tourist choices in Europe it baffles me as to why are we forcing Chinese visitors to the rest of Europe? On my last trip to China I had no visa or passport problems in Hong Kong or Shanghai. It took just two hours to renew.
And businesses are suffering – I experienced this first hand last year at one of my hotels when a Chinese group relocated a meeting at 24 hours notice from the Thames Valley to BRUSSELS due to visa delays .
David Scowsill, president and chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, sums up the situation clearly in Director Magazine:
“The monetary and indirect costs to visa applicants from waiting times and cumbersome application processes deter would-be travellers and divert demand from the UK to other destinations, which undercuts our competitive position for increasing travel and tourism exports (or money spent by foreign visitors in the UK).
China's economy empowers its citizens with money to spend on overseas trips. VisitBritain says the average Chinese visitor spends about three times as much – £1,600 – as the average international tourist to Britain. Yet the UK is losing out on thousands of Chinese visitors to European neighbours because those tourists face more obstacles – such as higher fees and a lengthier application – to travelling here than to most other destinations on the continent. Having the application in Chinese now helps. But other changes in the system must happen.Chinese outbound travellers totalled more than 70 million in 2011. Yet Britain welcomed only 149,000 of these compared to the 1.1m who went to France. The UK's absence from the Schengen agreement – which allows visits to 26 European countries on a single visa – compounds the problem. I understand the political discussion around Schengen but, in pure monetary terms, it is inflicting huge damage. The UK China Visa Alliance, which includes retail and tourism organisations, estimates that £1.2bn is being lost annually.”
As players in the travel and tourism industries it’s important that all our voices are head – no matter how big or small your business. Write to your MP and urge the government to look at smart visa solutions and programmes so that Chinese travellers – both business and leisure – can enjoy our country and so that our travel and tourism industry can fulfill it’s true potential.