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.
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“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.
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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.
