Home Office ministers are to start talks with Chinese tour operators in the hope of setting up an easier visa application system for groups of high-spending Asian shoppers who are discouraged by the UK’s border bureaucracy.
英国内政部(Home Office)部长级官员计划开启与中国旅游业者的商谈，以期为出手阔绰的亚洲“购物团”建立一套更简便的签证申请体系。目前英国的边境管理制度打击了这些游客的热情。
The department has been under pressure from luxury retailers to streamline the process for Chinese tourists, who can enter most of continental Europe with just one Schengen visa and are therefore less likely to apply for a separate UK entry.
奢侈品零售商一直在向英国内政部施压，要求该部门简化中国游客的入境流程。目前游客只需一份申根(Schengen)签证，就可进入欧洲大陆多数国家，因此单独申请英国签证的可能性较小。
As a result France receives at least 25 per cent more Chinese tourists each year than Britain.
这种状况导致法国每年吸引中国游客数量比英国多出至少25%。
Mark Harper, immigration minister, said yesterday that he hoped to begin discussions soon.
移民事务部长马克•哈珀(Mark Harper)昨日表示，他希望尽快开始商讨。
“It’s just thinking about, practically, what can we do with the tour operators to enable them to make that process for getting both [UK and Schengen] visas as straightforward as possible, ” he said.
他说：“只是想考虑一下，在实际操作中，我们怎样能帮助旅游业者，让他们能尽可能便捷地同时申请（英国和申根）签证。
“We may not be able to get it to be perfect, but we can get it to be a lot better than it is now, which then makes us a lot more competitive.”
“我们可能做不到完美，但我们可以使相关流程在原有基础上大为改善，这样一来，我们的竞争力就会大大提高。”
However, Mr Harper suggested that a previous idea of negotiating “parallel” processes – so that data for Schengen and UK visas could be submitted in one joint application – was looking less likely. This was because “you start running into issues about government IT projects and complex issues about data protection”, he said.
但哈珀暗示，之前考虑过的“平行”申请流程（允许申请者通过一次联合申请，一次性提交申根和英国签证所需的资料）设想如今看来不太可能实现。他说，这是因为，“这涉及政府IT项目的问题，以及数据保护方面的复杂问题。”
Mark Henderson, of UK China Visa Alliance, the retailers’ lobby, said the proposals for tour operators would be very welcome.
代表零售商的游说团体——英国对华签证联盟(UK China Visa Alliance)的马克•亨德森(Mark Henderson)表示，与旅游业者会谈的提议十分可喜。
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