China eases visa rules for India, tapping into US$21.6 billion travel market
Indian nationals will now be able to apply for Chinese visas online as Beijing and New Delhi gradually move to normalise economic ties
Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process for Indian nationals that could help it tap India’s fast-growing travel market.
The Chinese embassy in New Delhi said earlier this month that Indian citizens would be able to apply for visas online from December 22, sparing them time-consuming initial in-person visits to the embassy or other consular offices in the country.
“Generally speaking, China is relaxing its visa controls, and for China-India the megatrend is to have more engagement with each other,” said Victor Gao, vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation think tank in Beijing. “Granting more flexibility to Indians to visit China … would be highly appreciated.”
The simpler visa policy could help China grab a bigger slice of India’s lucrative outbound travel market, which was worth US$21.6 billion last year and is predicted to balloon to US$61.7 billion by 2033, according to a report by Indian research firm MarketsandMarkets.
Indian tourism to China was growing fast before 2020, with 142,000 Indian nationals visiting the country in 2019, a 19 per cent increase from the previous year, according to travel industry platform India Outbound. But travel then cratered amid the pandemic and growing political tensions.