Numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Europe could grow rapidly once Brussels and Beijing sign a long-awaited agreement that will make group tours easier to operate.
According to the Financial Times, European Commission officials have stated that under the agreement, which should be signed on Thursday, Chinese visitors will be given “approved destination status” to EU states that are part of the Schengen cross-border travel agreement.
Chinese visitor numbers are already surging with the country’s new-found wealth; there were 645,000 Chinese visitors to Europe last year so the potential for more growth is enormous.
In fact, the number of Chinese who travel abroad has doubled in the last five years, to more than 16 million, but many have found it difficult to get the necessary visas in China because many country’s are not yet “approved”. In Germany, the only country to have been given approval in Beijing, which has made arranging package tours and issuing group visas easier, visitor numbers from China grew by some 12 per cent last year.
The Financial Times states that the agreement will be signed on Thursday by Chinese leaders, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and the EC President Romano Prodi.
