Jan. 26–France is ‘stealing’ high-spending Chinese visitors from Britain ? putting at risk more than a billion pounds of income, say furious hotel and tourism bosses.
Attempts to make it easier for Chinese and other tourists to visit Britain have failed and we risk falling further behind when France launches an express visa processing system tomorrow.
Chinese tourists spend almost pounds sterling 7?billion a year on visits overseas, but Britain takes only a paltry pounds sterling 300?million of that.
The French government will tomorrow launch a 48-hour visa processing system to coincide with the start of the Chinese New Year on January 31.
By contrast, obtaining a British visa takes up to five days.
Jason Yap, chief executive of online travel website Travelzoo, said: ‘The outbound Chinese market is huge and the UK is missing out again and again.
‘Despite half-hearted revisions to the visa application system, other countries are cashing in on the business brought by Chinese tourists as they make it simple to enter the country.’
Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said: ‘China has rapidly become the second-largest tourism market in the world after the US.
‘If you’re serious about competing with other destinations then you’ve got to be competitive.’
Most European countries are signatories to the Schengen Agreement, which has created a borderless zone, making it easy for tourists from non-European Union states such as China to visit several countries without needing to obtain a new visa every time.
But the UK is outside the agreement and the application system has historically been costly and lengthy.
The Chinese typically pay pounds sterling 80 for a visa to the UK, but just pounds sterling 56 for a visa to Schengen countries. A visa to China for a Briton costs pounds sterling 30.
During George Osborne’s high-profile trade visit to Beijing in October, the Chancellor announced plans to make it easier for Chinese visitors to obtain visas. But so far travel bosses have been disappointed.
A pilot scheme was launched allowing Chinese tourists to apply for a UK visa alongside the Schengen process. However, this had to be through an approved Chinese travel agent, despite visitors increasingly choosing to make their own plans without using an agent.
A fast-track scheme for British visas is to be launched later this year, but only for VIP visitors and at an extra cost.
The stakes in the battle for China’s tourist cash are high. The country’s citizens made 83?million trips abroad in 2012 ? up 18 per cent on 2011 ? and with China’s economy transformed over the past 30 years their spending power has grown even faster.
But despite the fact that more Chinese speak English than French, and despite the historic if sometimes fractious links through the former British territory of Hong Kong, six times as many Chinese visited France as the UK last year.
Those who come to Britain tend to spend more money, but travel bosses argue that our share of the market is still too low. In 2012, Chinese tourists spent pounds sterling 6.7?billion while abroad, making them the second largest spenders after Americans.
The UK China Visa Alliance, which represents British travel and tourism companies campaigning on this issue, estimates that the visa process is costing Britain pounds sterling 1.2?billion in lost revenue. Back in 2012, InterContinental Hotels boss Richard Solomons told The Mail on Sunday: ‘For tourists, if you’ve got to go through a hell of a performance to get a visa, you’re just going to go to Continental Europe.
‘So we’ve got multiple issues, and France and Germany are getting five six or even seven times as many visitors from China as we are getting.’
Alison Couper, communications director at the Hotels.com website for booking rooms in Britain, said: ‘Making the visa process considerably faster than the UK’s is the clearest sign yet that the French are doing everything they can to attract more visitors from China. Our current visa system is persuading Chinese visitors to visit other places in Europe and it is British businesses that are ultimately losing out.
‘Now France is making it even easier for the Chinese to visit, its share could grow further.’
Ibrahim said: ‘We welcomed the news in the autumn that the Government was going to simplify the visa process.
‘But if you only make small, incremental changes then you will see small returns on those changes. There is much more to be done, much, much faster.
Worryingly for the industry, new research shows that Chinese travellers are so put off by the problems of getting a visa that they would rather visit Italy, Greece or even expensive Switzerland.
A survey of Chinese subscribers to Travelzoo’s website found Britain didn’t even make the top ten list of destinations they would like to visit.
Ibrahim said: ‘It was such a missed opportunity when 2014 was made the year of UK-Russian cultural exchange that there wasn’t also a simplification to the visa system.’
Russians are the third largest group of international travellers after the Americans and Chinese.
‘The spend from Russian tourists could be hugely significant,’ said Ibrahim. ‘But at the moment, it’s just a disaster.’
