Mark Henry, Vice-President and Coordinator of ETC’s visa advocacy work, presented a range of practical initiatives to deliver improved openness in ways that avoid compromising security or immigration control. ETC/s recommendations for action include: First is the adoption of ¨Best Practice¨ improvements for the current available visa types to ease the administrative burden for tourists, such as the implementation of simplified application processes, reduced application fees, and lengthening visa validity. Second is the greater deployment of new visa types, in particular greater adoption of electronic visas and visas on arrival. And third is the continued growth in the list of nations whose citizens can access Europe visa-free.
To assess the potential impact on the economy, ETC briefed Tourism Economics to undertake an analysis of the impact for Continental Europe[1] of each of these three degrees of liberalisation (benchmarked against no reform) for 10 priority source markets, which together account for more than half (53%) of the visa-constrained visits to European destinations. These priority markets are: China, Russia, India, Turkey, Indonesia, Belarus, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand. They were selected for their size and growth potential as well as their population’s propensity to travel.
David Goodger, Tourism Economics’ Director, explained that adopting the ‘Best Practice’ policies for the ten profiled markets would generate 3.4 million additional arrivals to European destinations each year by 2020. This would involve a cumulative total of 18.3 billion euros in associated tourism spending over the period to 2020 and 95,000 new jobs.
Offering new visa types, such as an eVisa or visa on arrival, would further reduce the burden on travellers and would help fuel stronger economic growth in subsequent years. The impact would be 8.5 million more annual visitor arrivals, a cumulative total of 45 billion euros in additional spending and more than 200,000 additional jobs over the period. The largest benefits would flow from a complete visa waiver for these markets, in which case 21.8 million additional arrivals per year would be expected. Over the period to 2020, this would generate 114 billion euros in new export revenue and 615,000 additional jobs, including direct, indirect and induced employment.