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Packer weighs into Chinese tourist visa row
The Australian trade mission to China which recently had ATEC complaining of the dangers Australia’s ‘antiquated’ and ‘demeaning’ visa application process for Chinese tourists poses to Australia’s $4 billion tourism industry, has now had James Packer calling for a simplification of the visa process starting just with allowing for online visa applications to be made in Chinese.
James Packer, a member of Mr Abbott's business delegation to China, says it should be easier for Chinese people to visit Australia, reports the ABC.
Mr Packer is the chairman and majority shareholder of Crown Resorts, the operator of casino hotels in Melbourne, Perth and the Macau Special Administrative Region of China, which competes with other destination resorts in places such as Singapore and Las Vegas.
According to the ABC, Mr Packer recently told Melbourne radio that it didn't make sense that visa application forms in China should be filled out in English and it didn't make sense that they had to be sent through the post.
"Australia accepts online visa applications; we don't from China," Mr Packer said. "In China if you want to apply for an Australian visa, you have to apply in English. At a very high level I think we should make it as easy for a wealthy Chinese citizen to come to Australia as we do for a wealthy American citizen."
When it comes to tourism, China is Australia's fastest growing inbound tourism market and largest contributor to international visitor spending in Australia.
Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, stated in a recent news release that China is "Australia's fastest growing and most valuable inbound tourism market, with 709,300 Chinese visitor arrivals in 2013 spending approximately $4.7 billion". Mr Robb says spending by Chinese visitors to Australia could reach $13 billion by 2020.
While outbound tourism by Chinese people has been consistently increasing and up almost 16 per cent from the previous year, the proportion of Chinese visiting Australia is steadily falling.
The ABC reports that other countries are paying special attention to the important Chinese market: For example, the US state of California has a 'China Ready' program which it says is designed "to prepare the state’s tourism industry to better serve Chinese travellers". The United Kingdom has also set a strategy to aggressively increase inbound Chinese tourism. Similarly, Immigration New Zealand tells Fact Check that "Increasing the number of visitors and migrants from new markets such as China is a key priority to growing the [New Zealand] economy".
Comments
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Tuesday, 22 April 2014What about a casino visa where you are taken straight to the Casino, fleeced, then taken straight back to the airport...sounds awesome. No pesky DIBP integrity checks, interviews, forms...nuthin.
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Tuesday, 22 April 2014All tourists visa applications should be online and not just f0r China. All APEC countries should have online applications including Russia. we should offer online visa rights for those countries that provide Australians with Free tourist visa travel. Much more should be done to facilitate Australians free visa status.
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Wednesday, 23 April 2014
“ Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar” is what I will describe most of the Chinese tourists. Are we so blind by the mighty RMB and just let anyone in who can show you the money with Chairman Mao’s picture on it. James Packer is doing a raging business with the Chinese and pockets billion of dollars from the Chinese gamblers. I understand that gambling does not have the same meaning as money laundry. Mr. Packer is flying in and out in his own private jet and dines at his own private club. How often did you see Mr. Packer mix with the general public? I can understand why he speaks well of the wealthy Chinese, money talks.
If the overseas experience is what we can rely on, then we should not embrace the Chinese tourists so enthusiastically and definitely not simplifies the visa application to suit the Chinese. What a joke that to apply for an Australia visa one can use Chinese! If taking this logic further, then every visa can be applied using different languages. Or is it only for the Chinese? Perhaps it is because the unemployment rate is so high in Australia that in order to create full employment any one with foreign languages skills will have the chance to be employed by the immigration department.
Ask anyone at the frontline working in the hospitality industry, public transport, airport, airlines and even hospitals or anywhere you can find a queue, I am sure they will have stories to tell you. I am sure the Chinese tourists are welcomed all over the world. Go to ask any Hongkonger, Singaporean, Spanish, German, Japanese, Taiwanese, Thai and Canadian, just to name the few and hands up those who don’t mind sitting next to bad manner passengers and having the thought that a fight might break out at the height of 13500 feet. Be warned, be prepared and most of all, good luck Australia!
Immigration blog
With Easter time charity in mind, the California 'China Ready' Program is a clear case of civil service workers trying to prove to the tourism lobby that they can help gain tourists for the state. The program is paid for by local industry and is fundamentally an advertising program. It does not assist in procuring visas for Chinese tourists. The website that should be helpful is not kept up to date, has links that lead nowhere, and is a general reminder that chambers of commerce and industry are often as badly run as the government bureaucrats that they criticise. http://industry.visitcalifornia.com/Market-Strategy/China-Ready/Its latest format is http://industry.visitcalifornia.com/Travel-Industry/Outlook-Forum-2014/China-Ready-20. This one is prettier and will raise income for the organisation, but it does nothing for Chinese who may be seeking visas.
Thinking that someone overseas in Sweden or Britain or America is doing a better job with the Chinese tourist is like thinking that the local serviceman is a dunce while the person dragged in from 50 miles away is an expert.
After several years of dealing with the US tourist visa questions, I can only suggest that agents here have no easier or harder time in dealing with immigration departments than elsewhere.
Strangely, the most efficient visa providers seem to be in post-2008 Ireland (Eire) where they like tourists, have about 50 thousand permanent resident Chinese and are making plenty of money out of Chinese who visit the country. Once inside Ireland, the visitors can travel throughout the EU with the exception of the UK and Northern Ireland which has border protection rules that seem to date back to the days of William The Conqueror.