According to data, the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad reaches 120 million annually, with their overseas consumption ranking first in the world. On average, every 22 Chinese tourists create 1 job for the UK tourism industry. Europe is opening its doors even wider to Chinese tourists, from the hotel and watch industries in Switzerland to Galeries Lafayette and Printemps on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and even small coastal towns in Greece, all are striving to create a more comfortable environment for Chinese visitors. Among these, the UK Home Office began piloting a new two-year visitor visa for China on January 11th, which costs the same as the previous 6-month visitor visa. This allows visitors to make multiple visits to the UK within a longer visa validity period, which is not only beneficial to the UK tourism industry but also to UK investment immigration.
The two-year visitor visa will be applicable for travel purposes such as tourism, business visits, attending conferences, or business inspections. The new visa measures will be more convenient, and the UK plans to expand its fingerprinting service for visa applications from 9 cities to 50 Chinese cities.
The implementation of this measure is based on the initiative announced by the British Prime Minister during President Xi Jinping's visit to the UK in October 2015.
According to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, news on January 5th stated that Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while meeting with the visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Beijing, said: China and the UK will further strengthen people-to-people exchanges. On the basis of the UK's announcement to issue 2-year multiple-entry visitor visas to Chinese citizens starting this year, China is also willing to issue 2-year multiple-entry visitor visas to British citizens, which is good news for the people of both countries. The Chinese side also welcomes the British side to issue 10-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese citizens at an appropriate time.