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The cost of travel permits needed by EU and US citizens to enter the UK will rise from £10 to £16, the government said, prompting warnings that the price would hurt tourism.
From the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) scheme. entered into force this monthmany visitors to the UK who do not require a visa must apply for digital permission to travel to the country.
Visitors currently pay £10 for a permit which is valid for two years and allows them to make multiple trips.
But the Home Office said the price of a permit would rise from £10 to £16 to “reduce the migration and border system’s reliance on taxpayer funding”. The government department has not set a date for the changes, which it said would raise an extra £269m a year.
Tourist groups i airlines criticized the changes, saying they make the cost of visiting the UK increasingly uncompetitive in light of EU plans to charge all visa-free visitors €7 for its planned travel authorization programme.
Richard Toomer, chief executive of the Tourism Alliance trade association, said the decision to lay charges was “astounding”.
“This is particularly a kick in the teeth for our European visitors, as they are being asked for the first time to apply for permission to travel to the UK in advance,” he said.
Tourism in the UK is worth £74 billion a year and ministers announced in November a target to increase visitor numbers by almost a third to 50 million people a year by 2030.
But Toomer said the goal would be missed “if the government continues to view tourists simply as cash cows.”
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade group Airlines UK, said the changes were “bitterly disappointing” but welcomed the Home Office’s decision to exempt transit passengers who visit UK airports but do not enter the country.
Heathrow Airport has warned that its position as the leading airport in Europe is threatened by the decision to charge transfer passengers.
Visitors from more than 50 countries, including the US, Australia and Canada, have had to apply for one of the permits to enter the UK since the start of the scheme, which is loosely modeled on the US Esta programme.
The list will be extended to include EU nationals on April 2, although Irish citizens will be exempt.
EU and UK citizens have been caught up in increased border formalities since seamless travel disappeared with the implementation of the Brexit deal at the end of 2020, four years after the referendum.
Visitors already face strict passport checks at UK-EU borders, causing disruption to Eurostar and the English Channel ports.
UK citizens will also be affected by the EU’s new biometric border checks, which are due to be introduced later this year but have been repeatedly delayed. A separate EU visa waiver scheme, similar to the UK’s ETA, is also due to be introduced in 2025.
As the cost of UK immigration rises, the cost of other services, including naturalization as a British citizen, will also rise.
