Thousands of Chinese may flock to Barnsley after plans to relax visa rules for visitors from the country were announced by chancellor George Osborne.
Under the plan, Chinese nationals visiting the European Union will not need to submit separate UK visa applications if they book with selected travel agents.
Barnsley has links with China in the form of 19th century missionary James Hudson Taylor, who travelled from Barnsley to China and is considered a spiritual leader by 70 million Christians in the Far East.
Owen Gleadall, president of the Barnsley Chamber of Commerce, said the proposals meant many 'ordinary' people would now be able to travel.
"We've been chasing it long enough now and as far as people coming to Barnsley from mainland China, it will make a massive impact. You could always get here if you had a significant amount of money, the issue was with the tourist visa."
He said the Chinese had previously found it difficult to meet the stipulated criteria when applying for a UK visa.
"We want to make friends with the Chinese and want their money but they turned around and said 'we can't get into your country'.
"Anywhere else in mainland Europe wasn't a problem but the UK made it really difficult for some obscure reason. It was an obstacle we put in their way but no other European country had."
He said latest figures from Visit England placed the UK number 24 on a list of 25 places visited by the Chinese, with 200,000 visitors last year.
