First batch of Chinese tourists to arrive on Sunday |
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Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:05
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LONDON: Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw's visit to Beijing early this year had brought smiles on the faces of tourism officials as he had got the Chinese government to tag the UK as an "approved destination" for Chinese tourists.
And now the first batch of 80 tourists are set to travel to England where they will be accorded a royal welcome by Duke of York Prince Andrew. These tourists will be greeted by the Prince at the Tower of London. The tourists are from Shanghai and Beijing.
Tourism officials in Britain are predicting that the expected deluge of Chinese tourists would net around £500m a year to the UK economy by 2020. The first batch of tourists as mentioned is arriving at the Heathrow Airport on Sunday and are on a package tour. Courtesy the 'relaxed rules,' visitors can expect economical package tours to the UK. It was estimated that almost 135,000 Chinese tourists had landed on the shores of Blighty last year.
And since the stifling rules were still in place they had come either for "doing business" or "studying." But now they can travel on tourist visas. Britain had received a meager 0.6 percent of the total number of tourists form China. France and Germany had been influxed by 1 percent each.
These figures are however very measly since most Chinese prefer to travel within their continent notably to India where the Buddhist religion flourished. Last year, 13 European counties had been able to get the 'approved destination' tag. Britain, Ireland and Denmark were not among these countries. Britain had finally got the tag in January after 20 months of protracted negotiations. Under the agreement, travel companies can also open offices in China to advertise their package tours.
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