Procedures simplified on self-help tour to Singapore
30/7/2003 17:00
Starting today, local Singapore-bound tourists can ask travel agencies to
handle individual visa affairs for them instead of going to the Singapore
consulate themselves, a move aiming to boost the Singapore self-help tourism
market, the Shanghai Morning Post reported today.
According to the new
experimented procedures, travel agencies will act as guarantor for individual
travelers with no invitation letters needed.
Visa fees cost 100 yuan
(US$12), the same as before, with 7-10 working days needed for travel agencies
to handle visa affairs.
However, tourists still have to pay 5,000 yuan of
deposit, according to the Shanghai China Travel Service, the only travel agency
in the city authorized for the new plan on a trial basis.
The new plan is
expected to most benefit local parents whose children are studying in Singapore,
said Yang Yanping, spokesman with the Shanghai China Travel Service.
Tourists
who want to take a self-help trip to Singapore only need to sign up ten days in
advance, which give them more freedom, Yang said.
The three-day (two nights)
self-help tour to Singapore costs at least 3,100 yuan, with up to 40 travel
itineraries for tourists to choose, she said.
The new plan made the self-help
tour to Singapore more flexible, with the number of tourists expected to double
in the second half of the year, said an industry analyst.
The plan will be
implemented on a trial basis for three to six months, and will be popularized if
proven effective, said the spokesman with the Singapore Tourism Board's Shanghai
office.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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