Ireland upgrades visa centres

In order to be at par with UK’s security measures and visa procedures, Ireland is busy upgrading its facilities at its centres and revamping its airports after the two countries announced the British-Irish Visa Scheme.

Before Ireland can reap the benefits of the single visa scheme that it jointly launched with UK starting this October, it will have to invest in upgrading its visa procedures and centres as well as the immigration process at its airports to keep up with the UK format.

Jim Paul, Head of Developing Markets for Tourism Ireland, was in India recently to announce the British-Irish Visa Scheme to their trade partners participating in the UK roadshow and to discuss marketing initiatives for the Indian market.

“We have to make sure that the Irish security is as good as and on par with that of UK. So we need time to upgrade our facilities. UK has biometrics and greater security issues as compared to Ireland. So they have to ensure that security levels at both ends are equal,” he informed.

Paul also met four to five big tour operators on his visit to Mumbai. “India is going through a bit of a number change at the moment with the rupee devaluing further and airline prices going up. This was really a fact-finding mission and I wanted to understand from the tour operators as to who are travelling where and why and what we can do to get them to Ireland,” Paul said.

He, however, did not have on-ground details of the scheme such as prices, dates, transit visas, etc at the time. “The big advantage for us is that we will be able to use the VFS centres – 10 to 12 in India – for issuing visas as against just our three offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru,” Paul said.

There are about 17 countries in the visa waiver scheme at the moment, with India and China leading the rest by virtue of being the biggest source markets for Ireland and UK. “While numbers from India are small when compared to other markets, it is important to note that Indians spend more and stay

With regards to the trade, Ireland and UK will be conducting workshops for agents at the VFS centres either this year or early next year. Ireland Tourism will also conduct a three-city roadshow early next year. “We will bring 10-12 suppliers from Ireland to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. We have also revamped our Ireland Specialist Programme that has over 300 agents. Our target is to reach over 700 this year,” he said.