A total of 5,087 tourist visas to Chinese tourists have been issued by authorities in the Netherlands for a period from January until August this year, or up by a total of 240 per cent compared to the figures from the same period last year.
Such conclusions have been reached in the recent report from Nu.nl, which indicated that the number of tourists visiting the Netherlands has significantly increased following the difficult situation created by the Coronavirus situation.
However, in spite of the notable increase, the figures continue to remain below the pre-pandemic levels.
Authorities in the Netherlands issued a total of 41,502 visas to Chinese travellers in the first months of 2019, which also allowed them to travel to all Schengen Zone countries.
The figures from the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) said that they do not expect a high recovery after lockdowns play a role.
“Many Chinese will want to build up a substantial financial cushion before they go on a long trip,” a spokesperson for NBTC pointed out, according to a report from NL Times.
According to SchengenVisaInfo statistics, last year, the total number of Schengen visa applications filed in China was 92,780. Of this total, 79,816 visas were issued, and 8,240, or 9.3 per cent, were rejected.
Regarding the number of Schengen Visa applications lodged by Chinese nationals at the Dutch Embassy in China, the same recorded a total of 4,622 applications, and it granted a positive response on 4,324 of them, rejecting another 217.
Among the reasons why the number of Chinese visitors in the Netherlands has not surpassed pre-pandemic levels were another wave of COVID-19 that affected China earlier this year and the measures imposed by other countries to prevent its further spread, such as travel bans and other similar measures.
In January this year, authorities in the Netherlands decided to impose mandatory COVID-19 test requirements on travellers from China within 48 hours before they arrived in the Dutch Republic.
The decision was confirmed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, following a recommendation of the European Union to the EU countries to introduce such measures as a response to the surge in the number of infections registered in China.
“It is important that we take travel measures in the context of the fight against COVID-19 at a European level. Together with colleagues, I have decided to follow the European line from the consultations of the Council of the EU’s Crisis Response (IPCR),” the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Ernst Kuipers, pointed out back then.
The Minister also said that the country has decided to align the requirements as much as possible with the European Union recommendation of January 24. However, with the easing of the restrictions, Chinese travellers’ demand to visit the Netherlands has marked a notable increase.
