The UK government is trying to make UK visas more accessible to high-spending Chinese tourists who are increasingly shunning London and visiting European cities such as Paris, Rome, Milan and Berlin instead.
The Home secretary, has been under pressure to streamline the system since the former culture secretary, announced an ambitious plan to treble the number of Chinese visitors by 2015. Currently just over 80 per cent of Chinese visiting Europe get a Schengen visa, enabling travel across continental Europe, 11 per cent get a UK visa and only 7 per cent get both.
Although initiatives such as the UK / China Approved Destination Status (ADS) agreement have been launched to fast-track group travel of 5 or more persons for up to 30 days, the UK visa system still remains bit of a mystery to prospective Chinese visitors to the UK.