Planning a trip to China? Then your holiday has just become even more expensive. The Chinese Embassy in the UK this week effectively more than doubled the cost of a tourist visa - a move that will hit Brits planning to head out there for the Beijing Olympics in August, as well as thousands of other holidaymakers and gap-year travellers.

The new higher fees have also coincided with a tightening of the rules which make applying for a visa "much more complicated," according to one holiday expert.

As a result, it is likely that more people will make use of their tour operator's paid-for visa application service. In all, a family of four now faces shelling out as much as £400.

The cost of a standard "single entry" visa remains unchanged at £30 per person. But now there is an "application service fee" to pay, too. This is £35.25 per person - or £47 if you want an "express service".

Meanwhile, travel companies typically charge around £25-£50 per person for holding people's hands through the process (providing advice, checking people's applications etc).

The new fees have come about because the Chinese Embassy has decided to outsource some of the administrative work associated with issuing visas. On Thursday, a "Chinese Visa Application Service Centre" (CVASC) opened for business near London's Chancery Lane.

Ordinary visa applications will have to be submitted to the CVASC. There will be a transition period during which time the embassy will allow people to pre-book appointments via the internet, though the early word on this system was that getting an appointment was proving easier said than done.

The higher costs came as a shock to Siobhan Hawthorne who is planning a visit to China to see friends. Hawthorne, who lives in Walthamstow, east London, says that as a family of four, they are likely to pay around £380 in total. "It just adds enormously to the cost - it will eat into our budget. And it seems like it has become a more complicated process," she says, adding that as a result, they will be making use of their tour operator's service in an attempt to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible.

You used to be able to turn up at the Chinese Embassy in London's Portland Place and queue up to get a visa. But as demand has grown, so have the long lines of people.

Last year the embassy processed 180,000 applications. "This is a huge amount," says an embassy spokesman. "All those applying have to stand in a long queue. That is the agonising fact for many applicants." As a result, many people were not satisfied with the service, and it was getting too crowded in the visa office, he adds.

However, the holiday expert Guardian Money spoke to says the change might also have something to do with the well-heeled residents of the Portland Place area being less than happy about the hordes on their doorstep.

As to who is behind the CVASC, the expert says: "They say they are nothing to do with the embassy." What also seems clear is that the rules on visas have been tightened. When applying, you have to provide details of your outward and return flights. If staying in a hotel, you must provide details of the booking - including, it is claimed, the dates you will be there, the address and the phone and fax number.

If you are staying with friends or relatives, you must provide an "invitation letter" from them, including their address, and a copy of their ID card if they are a Chinese citizen, or a work permit if they are foreign. The holiday expert said that the increased costs and bureaucracy will probably make some would-be holidaymakers think twice about visiting China.

A report in the New York Times earlier this week claimed that while analysts had forecast the Games would bring 500,000 foreign visitors, and billions of dollars of extra revenue to Beijing this summer, some economists were beginning to doubt that the city would get the kind of economic windfall it was hoping for.

"Many hotels in Beijing are struggling to find guests, some large travel agencies have temporarily closed branches, and people scheduled to travel here for seminars and conferences are cancelling," it stated.

But when it comes to the higher fees, perhaps us Brits are simply getting a taste of our own medicine. The embassy spokesman says his understanding is that any Chinese applying for a UK visa has to deal with a visa centre affiliated to the British Embassy in Beijing. "The new system in place in London now is more or less the same format," he adds. He also indicates that the new fees compare favourably with the charges imposed on Chinese people coming to Britain.

He's right: a quick bit of number-crunching on the web reveals that a standard visa to the UK costs the equivalent of about £70.

r.jones@theguardian.com