Prime Minister David Cameron today said visa restrictions would be eased for Indians to promote Britain’s tourism industry amid surge in cash-rich Indian visitors shopping in London's plush West End.
Calling for a focus on tourism, Cameron said the industry, which contributed 115 billion pounds to the national economy annually, was "fundamental to the rebuilding of our economy" given its potential to generate jobs and revenue.
One of the ways to boost tourism in the coming years will be to ease the process of issuing visitors visas to people from India and China.He said: "We’re going to remove some of the obstacles that put people off coming here, for example, by working more closely with our international partners to improve the local delivery of visa services in key markets like China and India."
He said online applications for visas will be increased from one third to 75 percent by 2011, with 100 percent coverage by 2014.
The government will also give more power to local authorities to set tourism policy and remove bureaucracy that discourages small businesses, he said.
Cameron's visa announcement comes amidst new figures that reveal a record number of Indian shoppers scoured London's West End and other stores across Britain for luxury goods between June 2009 and June 2010.
Figures released to PTI reveal the growing international mobility of Indian tourists, whose number jumped by a record 89 per cent during the period, according to research by financial services company Global Blue.
The analysis was collected from over 15,000 stores in Britain.
Nigel Dasler, vice-president of Global Blue, which manages over 38,000 shopper transactions each day across 40 markets, said: "Over the past few years, we had great expectations for sales growth of Indian shoppers in the U.K which did not materialise".
He added: "However, in 2009/2010, India has become an important market for the U.K. We are following the trend of Indian shoppers to the luxury sector in the U.K and have noted an increase in their average spend from June 2009 to June 2010. This may be an indication of the growing wealth of the country."
Cameron said UK tourism must focus on "heritage" and urged people to be more "proud" of the UK and its history.
The country was not "doing enough" to break into the top five most-visited destinations in the world, he added.