Thursday, July 11, 2013

Visa rules for Chinese 'cost Britain £5m a day'

Visa rules for Chinese people visiting are "colonial" and costing Britain "£4m-£5m a day", said Simon Thomas, chief executive of the Hippodrome Casino in London's West End.

"The current visa system is bureaucratic madness," he told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

"Chinese tourists can fill out a relatively simple form to get a Schengen visa for 26 European countries, yet have an incredibly complicated process to get a UK visa, so many of them don't bother," Mr Thomas said.

London's Hippodrome Casino opened in July 2012 following a multi-million pound refit. Speaking at the casino's opening, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said he expected it to "attract high-rollers in tuxedos from around the planet" who would pump "significant quantities of foreign currency into London."

Chinese are avid gamblers and in 2006 the Chinese territory of Macau overtook Las Vegas as the world's most lucrative gambling market.

 But Mr Thomas said Britain's outdated visa rules meant it was missing out. Full story...

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