UK embassy's innovations come in handy for FITs

We already wrote about the British embassyreducing the visa applications processing time from 30 to 15 days. Now, starting February 25, all visa centers in Russia will start accepting applications for urgent visas, which will be processed in three-five days' time.

The ability to pay consular charges online, which was introduced a year ago, hasn't really touched operators' hearts. Yet the reduction of application times is most definitely considered to be good news. Still, visas for two or even for ten years are not in high demand among tourists; they are more useful to businessmen, working and living abroad, and to parents, who want their kids to get a diploma form a British school.

According to Natalia Minorskaya, Head of the British department at Vand International Tour, most people travel a couple of times to UK, visit Scotland, and lose their interest towards the destination. Sometimes British visas are used to go to Ireland. “We try to get all our clients six month visas, they don't really need more. And we try to keep the risks low. For instance, we once applied for a long term visa, the procedure took several months. And in the end we still got a standard six month visa. By that time tourist's airline tickets have already expired, and the trip was ruined”, – says Mrs. Minorskaya. Yet she notes that lately documents have been returning from the visa center earlier than promised, in less than ten days. The company sees a 50% rise in interest towards UK, compared to last year's numbers. The tours for May holidays are almost sold out, and the depth of sales sometimes reaches the end of this year.

General Manager of Meridian Express, Alan Sautiyev, also notes that visa processing timeframes are being met by the embassy. Yet the main influx of tourists is usually between March and June. “During this period one should expect to wait at least a month for his application to be processed”, – the expert is sure. In his company no one has applied for a ten year visa. 90% of tourists are fine with the six month limit. Two year visas are mostly popular among people, who have already been to UK, and plan to go again. According to Mr. Sautiyev, the innovations at the British embassy are not of much help to tour operators, yet they are very useful for individual tourists, who want to visit the country by themselves.

The expert also said that judging by the number of summer booking, this season will show a 50% rise of sales: “There are a lot of inquiries, especially for language schools. And they started forming last November, which is a couple of month earlier than usual”.

Elena Gorokhova, Head of the British department at BSI Group, believes that ten year visas are not aimed at tourists, but rather at businessmen. Most tourists are happy with a six month or a two year visa. “We've got used to paying the visa fees with a credit card. Now we just need visa centers to stick with their processing timeframes for short and long term visas”, – stated the expert. The Olympics, in her opinion, held some tourists back last year. So it's no wonder that this season promises to be more active. “At the moment the number of bookings is 20% higher than in 2011. Kids tours for March, April and May are selling well with the depth of sales going as deep as June”, – said Elena Gorokhova in an interview to RATA-news.