Leisure and hospitality industries in the UK could continue to lose ground on France and Germany in attracting high-spending Chinese tourists unless the UK government is to simplify its visa application process, according to a new report.
If restrictions are loosened, the study from the UK China Visa Alliance (UCKVA) has found that the UK could gain an additional £1.2bn in Chinese spend per year.
The report says that 90 per cent of Chinese tour groups that travel to Europe each year end up missing out on the UK, while 80 per cent of trips to Europe from China tend to focus on the destinations of Germany and France, despite the UK overtaking France as the most searched for location on Chinese social media.
Of these social media searches, it has also been discovered that Chinese tourists are becoming increasingly interested in Britain, with London being the choice destination for 30 per cent of Chinese travellers.
The report believes that it is the current visa application process that is putting Chinese tour operators and tourists off the country, with 71 per cent of tour operators surveyed claiming that they would add the UK to their itineraries if the visa process was simpler.
Such is the spending power of Chinese tourists already visiting the UK; statistics show that these visitors currently spend £741 per transaction in UK shops.
Meanwhile, Chinese visitors are currently thought to spend 64 per cent more across retail and leisure industries in London than any other nationality.
“We welcome the improvements to date, but urge the Government to consider our recommendations to ensure that the UK performs as well as our European neighbours, said Andrew Murphy, chair of the UK China Visa Alliance and retail director of John Lewis.
“It is frustrating that only around 15 per cent of the 1.6 million Chinese visitors to Europe each year have a UK visitor visa. This means that 1.3 million Chinese people are travelling half way around the world to Europe but do not make the short trip across the Channel to spend their money in Britain because they don't have a UK visa.
“There is a huge prize waiting to be claimed, but over a billion pounds a year is slipping through our fingers and fuelling the economies of France and Germany instead.”
In 2013 alone, Chinese tourists spent £492m across the UK; with the UK Chancellor launching a pilot scheme in October 2013 to allow a select group of Chinese tour operators to use a Schengen form when applying for a UK visa.
