It is a well-known fact Indians count for the major part of the immigrants as well as the non-immigrants in the United Kingdom. The recent has been that the Indian tourists have turned out to be the highest spenders in London, especially in the posh West End which is the shopping district in London. Keeping the above in mind, the retailers have started a campaign to advocate the easing of the visa norms specifically for the Indians. This campaign has been put forth to urge the present government of David Cameron.
The campaign has been named as the Visa-Ability Campaign and is being driven on forecasts that the total expenditure by the shoppers in Regent Street, Oxford Street as well as Bond Street would reach up to £12 billion in the coming two years. This is especially going to be true during the London Olympics in 2012.
This high level of expenditures is being expected from international shoppers, especially those belonging to India and China as the exchange rates for them is currently favorable. The main aim is to promote this trend further which would encourage more people to visit and shop in West End and prefer the UK instead of other nations.
According to the New West End Company, the money that would be spent in West End alone this year would go beyond £6 billion. This company makes up for six hundred retailers on the above three high-end shopping streets.
VisitBritain which is an agency promoting international tourism along with the New West End Company have led the campaign to Mr. Damian Green, the Immigration Minister; Mr. Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary for Culture and Olympics and Mr. John Rose, the Tourism Minister.
Many Parliament Members in Britain have already urged the government to remove the new laws on immigration. The recent of which is to clear an English test before they are permitted to come to the UK. This is especially for students from India and other non-European countries.
As per the MPs, these rules have been implemented in a hurry and have many flaws. This would simply discourage around 100,000 international students who pay a very high fee to come and study in the UK. These rules simply threaten a key sector to the economy of the UK and might damage the education industry in the nation.
