A new retail association has launched an action plan to help the retail sector tackle the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, once Covid-19 has been contained.
The Association of International Retail proposes to make further enhancements to the visa application system.
Related measures would include a three-year student family visa to encourage multiple trips for wealthier parents of Chinese students in the UK, and allowing visa-free travel from China for visitors judged to be low-risk.
The association also calls for a reduction in queues for entry at airports, digitalised tax-free shopping systems, improving language and payments systems and a “more coordinated and targeted marketing approach” in promoting brands from the UK.
Longer term objectives include campaigning for extending exemptions to Sunday trading laws; leading on innovations to visas and border queues so that it is easier for travellers to visit and shop at the UK’s retail hotspots; and making the case to government that the UKs new post-Brexit immigration policy must help retailers get the staff they need from around the world.
AIR, which launched this month, is led by chair Jace Tyrell and chief executive Paul Barnes.
Tyrell is chief executive of New West End Company, and Barnes is a public affairs consultant.
AIR’s members include retailers Harrods, Selfridges and John Lewis, landlords Cadogan and Shaftesbury, tax-free shopping operator Global Blue, British luxury goods firm Walpole and tourism body UKinbound.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, deputy-chair of the All-Party China Parliamentary Group, said: “With Chinese visitors being Britain’s highest spending international shoppers it is vital for the government to be planning the recovery phase once coronavirus is under control.”
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