TTNQ is actively working with Tourism and Events QLD (TEQ) and the Queensland Tourism and Industry Council (QTIC) to advocate the need for speedy processing from these two key tourism markets.
There has been concern provided by our Chinese and Indian KDPs regarding visa processing times for the leisure market. The processing times are not in line with market expectation. Many of our tour operators have expressed concern this is affecting business and visitor numbers are down.
There has been phenomenal growth with applications in India and there is a lack of resources in managing the paper based applications.
The Department of Home Affairs is aiming to phase out legacy paper based systems and bring in on-line processing which makes sense in future.
Multiyear visa’s are processed quickly but these are expensive to obtain so the average tourist is only interested in a one off visa for their holiday.
There is a need for further resources to be provided to manage the volume until the on-line system is fully functional. We need to listen to the feedback from our agents in these markets who are experiencing challenges with the processes.
Our Operators are fearful that they will see impacts particularly over Chinese New Year if tourist Visas are not processed in a timely manner.
This could impact our visitor numbers from China and also India going forward, particularly over Chinese New Year and student peak travel times out of India. Our operators are already suggesting that numbers are slightly down on where they would expect to be at this time of year.
TEQ and QTIC are actively advocating and monitoring this with the Department.
Pip Close
Chief Executive Officer
6 December 2018