Visas deter China’s shoppers from West End

Chinese shoppers adore the West End but are being held back by the “difficult process” of securing a visa, one of London’s leading style commentators said today.

Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ magazine, said Chinese visitors to the capital’s first men’s fashion week had been bowled over by “the fabulous array of talent and retail offerings in the area”. Mr Jones, who helped to launch the week, said: “Hong Kong and China is an incredibly important region in terms of trade for our industry, and the amount of interest in London as a fashion destination is thrilling. One of the things we kept hearing was how vibrant the Chinese thought the West End was. Time and again, we heard how the entire West End was generating great word of mouth reviews.”

However, he said: “The drive to visit the West End is there, but we need more Chinese shoppers to be able to find their way to our streets. We need to ensure the difficult process of getting UK visas is addressed, so that we can at least gain the same share of Chinese spend as our European neighbours.” London still attracts far fewer Chinese tourists than some rival capitals, particularly Paris, largely because visitors have to apply for a separate visa to visit the UK. All other western European countries are covered by a single “Schengen Area” visa.

Tourism chiefs are to meet Border Agency officials next month to discuss plans for a single application process for UK and Schengen visas.

It is estimated that the visa “assault course” is costing the British economy £1.2  billion in lost spending. Chinese visitors are known for their love of luxury brands and are prized by West End stores. Last year, Selfridges said that spending by Chinese people in its Oxford Street store had increased by 65 per cent.

A Home Office spokesman said: “China is one of the UK’s priority markets for tourism and business and we are committed to providing an ever improving service to support this.”