The UNWTO has said that Europe’s visa regimes are among the most restrictive in the world. The organization has estimated that 74% of the global population would have required a visa to travel to Europe in 2015. This number largely accounts for visitors from long-haul source markets which are amongst the most valuable as they tend to stay longer and spend more per day than the average visitor.
Presently China is among the long-haul source markets for which visa-free access to the EU, including the Schengen area, is not available, although there is incremental rise in Chinese travel demand to Europe over the last ten years. China is the world’s largest outbound travel market, both in terms of generated arrivals and total travel expenditure.
Complete visa liberalization between China and the EU is likely to increase the average growth of Chinese arrivals from 7% to 18% per year between 2018-2023 and give rise to more employment.
