The UK’s visitor visa system has the potential to be a constructive tool in encouraging the return of high-spending tourists to the UK. However, the current system fails to capitalise on this opportunity and the Government should reassess the system’s priorities. We should particularly take note of the freer European visa systems, including the Schengen Area visa, and look to replicate the areas which have had real success in lowering the barriers to visitor entry to the continent.
As major spenders, visa waivers for visitors from the GCC states are a good example of how the Government has been responsive to the sector’s concerns and the work championed by the New West End Company (NWEC), the Association of International Retail (AIR) and Walpole. Visitors from the GCC states are critical to the UK’s tourist economy, a sector responsible for 40.86 million visitors. Although they represented just 4% of non-EU visitors, in 2019 they accounted for 26% of all tax-free shopping sales. Since the decision to abolish VAT RES, 60% of GCC tourists have suggested that they would reduce the amount of time spent in the UK.
With the expansion of the Electronic Visa Waiver to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia earlier this year, tourism has become easier and more straightforward for visitors from across the Gulf, but the UK’s tourism recovery is still falling behind other European states, and now is the time to double down, further simplify the system and expand it to other countries. In the absence of tax-free shopping, the visitor visa application process and benefits must be at least as good as those of Schengen so as not to further disadvantage the UK. The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for GCC countries which launches in 2023 will further improve this process, and is very much welcomed, but it is essential that we continue to match any progress other countries make.
Another important segment is Chinese visitors who are the world’s top tourism spenders, with a global expenditure of $254.6bn (£195m) in 2019 alone according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. For the burgeoning number of middle class and affluent families in China, visiting the UK has real cachet: 883,000 Chinese tourists visited in 2019. Given only 13% of the population hold passports, the opportunity for growth is immense.
Most Chinese visitors make their trip to Europe a multi-country tour. A Schengen visa gives them access to 26 countries. To add to UK to that list, they also need to obtain a UK visa in addition. This doubles the amount of effort required to apply for these two biometric visas. The UK government has worked with business to develop ways to reduce this burden, such as sharing application material, the introduction of a 2-year visa as standard and a pilot with Belgium to share Visa Application Centres. As a result, UK visitor visa numbers issued in China grew from 200,000 in 2013 to over 800,000 in 2019. However the Electronic Visa Waiver Scheme, which works well in the GCC states, has not yet been introduced in the Far East.
Working with our partners at NWEC & AIR we recommend that the UK Government should continue to prioritise making the electronic visa application process as straightforward as possible for visitors from GCC. Likewise, it should also look to extending the Electronic Visa Waiver to other high-spending markets, particularly in the Far East to reduce the burden of having to apply for both a UK and Schengen visa. In addition the joint Schengen/UK visa application initiative in China, which resolves the issue of tourists having to apply for two visas when visiting both continental Europe and the UK, should be expanded from the current Belgium pilot to countries with larger tourist numbers such as France and Italy. The Government should also explore introducing a standard 10-year visitor visa for tourists from high-spending markets, as the US has done.
Finally, the Government should introduce a visa for the families of Chinese students studying in the UK. The cost of studying and living in the UK suggests that the parents of the more than 100,000 Chinese students in Britain are likely to be wealthy. A visa that matches the student’s time in the UK (e.g. three years rather than the standard two) would encourage multiple visits by these wealthy Chinese parents. And, since most Chinese students are studying in universities outside London, this would provide a boost to regional economies.
