Visas: Chinese Visitors

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

My Lords, my noble friend is quite right to exhort us to greater effort, but he should be well aware of the work that is being done through our network of BritAgents throughout China and indeed our partnership with British Airways, which is opening a new route from Chengdu to London this year. This partnership and the way in which we are building our relationship with Chinese visitors are proving successful. Indeed, the most recent International Passenger Survey data revealed a 24% increase in the number of Chinese visitors in 2012 compared with 2011.

[Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the most recent World Economic Forum analysis of tourism competitiveness showed that Britain’s visa regime has gone from 22nd to 46th? Not only that, we are 139th out of 140 for the charges at our airports and on tickets because of our old friend air passenger duty. Last week, we had the debacle around Brazilian visas added to the current difficulties with Chinese visas. There are people out there desperate to come to Britain. They spent £18.7 billion in Britain last year, 4% more than the year before. Why are we making it so difficult for them?

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

I am afraid that I cannot agree with the noble Baroness. She paints a pretty dismal picture, but I do not recognise that from the reality. Of the applicants for visas, 97% are processed within 15 days and of those, 96% are successful. Having sought the opinion of Chinese visitors, 90% are very satisfied with the service provided by the visa service.