European Travel Commission (ETC), today has demanded the reform for the ways the visas are issued to the business and leisure travellers, referring the benefits to the economy of the Europe which is 114 billion pounds in the export revenue and creating 6,15,000 new jobs by the year 2020.
According to the ETC President, Europe is losing its share of world tourism and that the liberalization is necessary when the Europe requires to create new jobs.
Visitors are valuable as they remain for longer period of time and also spend more money per day. But the visa regimes of the European countries are most restrictive in the whole world. Around 56% of the visitors from outside the Europe were in need of a visa in the year 2014.
According to the Vice President and Coordinator of ETC's visa advocacy work, Mark Henry, reform in the visa is possible without any comprise in security or the immigration control. And explained about the three possible scenarios. First is the adaptation of the ‘Best Practice’ enhancements for easing the administrative burden for the tourists, like simplification of visa application process, reducing the fees and providing longer durations of stay. Second is introducing the new types of visas like e –visas and visa on arrival and third is the increasing the number of visa waiver nations.
Reforming the visas for adapting the best practice policies for the Europe’s top ten, visa constrained markets will motivate around 3.4 million more arrivals per year, and this will generate around 18 billion pounds in the spending upto the year 2020 and would create 95,000 new jobs.
The new types of visa like e-visa or visa on arrival will deliver around 8.5 million tourists per year, and 45 billion pounds in extra spending and will create more than 2,00,000 more jobs. The biggest benefit will be from the complete visa waiver program that will drive around 21.8 million more travellers per year. And would also create 114 billion pounds in the new export revenue and will also create around 6,15,000 more jobs by the year 2020.
The Council for World Travel and Tourism (WTTC) has recommended the European governments for embracing the e-visa facility. As the WTTC has studied the prospective effect of the visa reform on the economies of G20 and also assessed around 3.1 million extra direct tourism related jobs and around 5.1 million jobs overall will be created. The G20 can also see the increase in the tourist arrivals of around 16% and rise in the global tourism receipts of around 21% in three years. This will also represent an addition of 112 million more foreign tourists, spending around $206 billion dollars.
