UK lowers the cost of visa application for Chinese tourists

In order to compete with other countries like France and Germany, Britain has decided to lower the visa application cost for Chinese tourists. According to the new visa protocol, the cost of applying for a two-year visa will be reduced from GBP 324 to GBP 85, which is almost a 75% decrease. With this new measure, Britain hopes to lure more Chinese tourists and business people who might be interested to visit Britain.

In order to serve the tourists who want to visit Britain, the British government has also decided to expand the fingerprinting service from 9 to 50 Chinese cities. As fingerprinting is a necessary step for Chinese tourists to obtain their visas, this expansion would enable more potential visitors in China to apply for a visa more quickly and easily.

One major reason for these reforms regarding the visa regulations is the huge revenue Chinese tourists are bringing to the British tourism market. Tourism from China is worth GBP 500 million a year, and China is one of the fastest growing markets for global tourism. Therefore, Britain sees the necessity to make trips of Chinese visitors to Britain easier, and Chinese tourists are also well known for their readiness to spend more money on their journey. Due to this reason, businesses in Britain have long proposed to their government to facilitate the visa application for Chinese visitors.

Meanwhile, the new policies regarding visa application will be reciprocated by the Chinese government in the way that British citizens can now also visit China easier. This could be symbol of the closer cooperation between Britain and China following the visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain last October.

According to a spokesman of the Home Office, the new visa measures are aimed to provide Chinese customers with better service and ensure that UK’s visa offers are better than that of the competitors.

Not just tourists, but also businessmen will benefit from the new visa policies. As the business relationship between China and the UK becomes tighter, a more relaxed visa policy could also promote the business activities of both sides, thus contributing to the economies of the two major world’s powers.

Source: mailonline

Photo: flickr