Consulate General in Shanghai meets travel agencies in Jiangsu Province

On April 25th the Visa Section of the Royal Danish Consulate General in Shanghai visited the city of Nanjing to conduct a visa training seminar in cooperation with the Foreign Affairs Office in Jiangsu Province.

Attaché Mogens Pedersen from the Danish Consulate General and Director of Passport and Visa Section at Jiangsu Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, Mr Bao Guangliang headed the arrangement.

23 local and provincial travel agencies took part in the seminar which was aimed at presenting the visa application rules for the Schengen countries.

Attaché Mr Mogens Pedersen opened the seminar with an introduction that focused on common misconceptions in the visa application process.

“The Chinese have since 2012 been the top international tourism spenders. Our job is to make the visa application process as smooth as possible for Chinese citizens. If we ensure this Denmark and the Schengen countries will be seen as an even more desirable destination,” attaché Pedersen said after the seminar.

Director of Passport and Visa Section in Jiangsu Province, Mr Bao Guangliang was highly satisfied with the seminar. He sees great possibilities for Chinese tourism in Denmark.

“Today’s seminar is a great way to promote Denmark as an ideal holiday destination. At the same time it gives the travel agencies a better understanding of the Schengen visa rules, which in turn means that they can provide a better service for the travellers,” said Director Bao.

An important part of the seminar was to introduce to the travel agencies the procedure of getting accredited to the special scheme “Approved Destination Status (ADS)”, which is a bilateral tourism arrangement with China that makes it easier to submit visa applications for larger groups to the Schengen Countries.

“During the Q&A-session we were able to clear some of the grey areas in the ADS process and the travel agencies were also able to point to questions that demands further investigation from the Consulate General. It is this sort of dialogue and exchange that will strengthen the cooperation between the Danish representation on the one hand and Chinese officials and travel agencies on the other,” attaché Pedersen said.