Europe looks at simplifying visas for overseas travellers

BERLIN- Europe remains the most attractive continent in the world, representing 51.8% of all world international arrivals of tourists in 2013, according to preliminary figures of UNWTO. This represents close to 563 million of travellers to the continent, 2.5 times as much as Asia with 248 million of international tourists. In Europe, 9 % of all arrivals are from overseas markets (50 million), with Asia generating some 15 million of annual arrivals. According to the European Travel Commission figures from 2013, China and Japan generated the largest number of travellers, representing respectively 7.5 and 4.7 million of outbound travellers to Europe followed by India with 1.4 million travellers. 
 

“China represents one of our fastest growing markets and we will continue to look at Chinese outbound market as a priority marketing target”, explained the European Travel Commission (ETC) Executive Director Eduardo Santander.

However, not all is rosy for overseas travellers. “Visa requirements are a major source of complaint from overseas tourists. We certainly lose a lot of potential visitors due to the difficulty to obtain sometimes a visa”, recognizes Pedro Ortun, Director for Tourism of the European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. 
 

The European Commission acknowledged that difficulty and has been now working for a couple of years on new rules. “We are now ready and we will officially present our ‘visa package’ to the European Commission on March 19. If this will not be a revolution, it will be at least a huge evolution in the way to allow travellers to come into Europe. It then will request the approval from the parliament and from each country to adhere to EU visa rules. But I am confident as most countries recognize the need to facilitate tourism movements”, adds Mr. Ortun. 
 

All the details of the package will be unveiled on March 19. But Mr. Ortun already gave a few hint to the future visa policy. “We are looking to put as much as possible new countries into a visa waiver program. And for other countries, it could be possible to first test a one year-multiple entry visa and then go to 2 or even 5-years multiple entry visa…”, he explains. Of course, safety and record tracking of tourists entering the EU remains of extreme importance. “We do not want to open Europe to waves of uncontrolled immigration”, says the European Travel Commission.
 

The visa simplification for overseas travellers is a huge leap forward for international tourism and is part of “Europe 2020” program which looks at turning Europe into a travel brand and assure the lead of the continent in world tourism.