Chinese tourists shop at Bicester Village, a popular shopping area in London. Surveys show the Chinese spend much more than visitors from other countries – around 1500 pounds on average. [Photo/ China Daily]

Top executives from airline, retail, and service businesses are calling on the British government to make it easier for big-spending Chinese tourists to visit the UK. British Airways boss Willie Walsh, Nick Varney of Madame Tussauds and Travelodge chief, Grant Hearn, have lined up to warn that Britain is missing out on a recession-busting consumer spree by Chinese visitors. Harrods managing director Michael Ward says the strict visa rules are costing the UK 1.5 billion pounds a year. The Daily Telegraph has thrown its weight behind the campaign.

Surveys show the Chinese spend much more than visitors from other countries – around 1500 pounds on average. They are particularly prolific spenders in the duty-free malls at airports. But increasingly they are shunning London for Paris, Madrid, Milan, Rome and Berlin. The reason is simple. With a single Schengen visa costing 60 Euros, Chinese citizens can visit 26 European countries. To enter Britain, they must pay 80 pounds for an additional visa, fill in exhaustive questionnaires, and have their fingerprints taken.

Ben Elliot, founder of Quintessentially, one of a new breed of companies catering to the super-rich, is scathing about this last indignity. The old Etonian nephew of Camilla Parker-Bowles says the government is treating Chinese visitors like criminals.

With the UK economy in the doldrums, some of the lobbying sounds like a mix of hyperbole and desperation. Both Walsh and Holiday Inn boss Richard Solomons, claim a boost in Chinese traveller numbers could kick-start the economy and put the UK back on the path to growth.

One thing is certain, domestic demand is not riding to the rescue. As the economy heads for a triple-dip recession, British workers head for Wonga – the country's biggest payday loan firm. A survey by Unite, Britain's biggest trades union, found young men are borrowing on average £400 a month from online loan companies to make ends meet. Unlike the USA and many other jurisdictions, the UK does not cap interest rates. Wonga charges an astonishing 4,200 percent per annum. Its rival Quickquid's selling point is that its APR is "only" 1,734 percent.

British officials usually cite security concerns and "fighting terrorism" as reasons for tough border controls. But this can be discounted. The perpetrators of the worst terrorist incident on British soil – the July 2005 Tube bombings – did not need visas because they were British. And despite IRA bombings on the mainland during the 30 year Troubles in Northern Ireland, travel between the Irish Republic and the UK remained passport-free, indeed free from any ID-checks whatsoever.

A more compelling reason for the ruling Conservatives to turn a deaf ear to the business lobby can be summed up in Prime Minister David Cameron's least favourite four letter word – UKIP. The right wing, anti-European Union UK Independence Party, led by the plausible Nigel Farrage, beat the Conservatives into third place at a bye-election last month. With the opposition Labour Party 12 points ahead in the opinion polls, Cameron is running scared. His response has been to shift to the right. He has pledged to hold a risky referendum on EU membership, and appeased the anti-immigration lobby with antics such as the bizarre decision to expel all foreign students from London Metropolitan University.

The Conservative leadership know very well that withdrawal from the EU would be economic madness and that interfering with the hugely profitable overseas students business is a disaster for Brand Britain. British business desperately wants to attract free-spending overseas visitors. But UKIP represents powerful strains of Europhobia and xenophobia in British public opinion that have been reinforced by the Great Recession and the Euro crisis. Wedded to a deeply unpopular austerity policy, squeezed between Labour on the one hand, and UKIP and the right wing of his own party on the other, Cameron cannot afford to appear soft on border policy.

In all this, the Chinese are just collateral damage. It would make economic sense to cut red tape for Chinese visitors to Britain; but, for all the wrong reasons, it's unlikely to happen.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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