In Russia, the demand for visas to China has increased, Kommersant learned. This comes after Beijing announced that it would resume issuing all types of visas from March 15.
So, in two days, the Russians occupied all the free spaces for paperwork for a trip to China. Yulia Otvagina, deputy head of the visa and migration department at Continent Express, and Marina Shirokova, head of Visakhod’s corporate department, told the publication about this.
According to Otvagina, on March 17 in the Moscow visa centers it was possible to get a slot for submitting documents only for May 23. Petersburg a little earlier, on April 20. At the same time, as Shirokova clarified, all the places vacated due to failures are immediately taken by bots.
The most popular are business visas to China, market participants said. Representatives of Russian companies began to accurately draw up documents in order to have time to get to the Canton Fair in Guangzhou. It runs from April 15 to May 5.
Another factor is attempts to reorient imports and exports to the East in the context of the increasing isolation of Russia by Western sanctions. Therefore, trade representatives need to negotiate more often with partners from China.
According to Alina Protsenko, head of the Aeroclub visa support department, most often business visas are issued by representatives of the manufacturing and mining industries, as well as the construction industry. FMCG industry managers also apply for business visas.
In addition, there is increased interest in this direction among tourists. After March 15, the share of air travel bookings in China rose to 2% of the total, from just 0.1% previously. Thus, China ranked 12th in the top of the most popular destinations among Russians.
According to the OneTwoTrip service, 28% of reservations in China are made in Beijing and another 23% in Shanghai. And 18% choose Guangzhou.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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