Australia is planning to grant 10-year visas to Chinese nationals, as part of a continued bid to target the world’s biggest outbound travel market.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed the move this week, during a visit to Shanghai. The country is also planning to offer online visa applications for Chinese nationals.
“We’re… trialling 10-year validity visas, again for the first time here in China,” Turnbull was quoted saying by the Shanghai Daily. He didn’t specifying what class of traveller would be eligible for the extended visas.
Turnbull also confirmed that Australia plans to simplify the visas offered to Chinese students, reducing them from eight categories to just two.
A total of 1.02 million Chinese visited Australia on 2015 – the first time the full-year figure has crossed the one million mark. These visitors generated a record AU$8.3 billion (US$6.4bn) in tourism revenues for Australia, making China by far the most valuable source market.
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