UK to raise price of travel permits for EU visitors by 60%

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The price of travel permits required for EU and US citizens to enter the UK will rise from £10 to £16, the government has said, warning the cost will hurt tourism.

Since the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) scheme Effective this monthMany visitors to the UK who do not need a visa must apply for a digital permit to travel to the country.

Currently visitors pay £10 for a permit which is valid for two years and allows them to make multiple trips.

But the Home Office said the cost of a permit would rise from £10 to £16 to help “reduce the migration and border system’s reliance on taxpayer funding”. The government department has not set a date for the change, which it says will raise an extra £269m a year.

Tourism groups and Airlines The changes have been criticized, saying they make the cost of visiting the UK increasingly uncompetitive in light of the EU’s planned travel authorization scheme to charge €7 to all visitors who do not need a visa.

Richard Toomer, executive director of the Tourism Alliance trade association, said the decision to increase charges was “surprising”.

“This is particularly a kick in the teeth for our European visitors as they have to apply for advance permission to travel to the UK for the first time,” he said.

Tourism is worth £74 billion a year to the UK, and ministers announced in November a target to increase tourist numbers by almost a third to 50 million a year by 2030.

But Toomer said the target would be missed “if the government sees tourists only 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 passengers traveling to UK airports but not entering the country.

Heathrow Airport has warned that its position as Europe’s leading hub airport is under threat as a result of the decision to transfer passengers.

Visitors from more than 50 countries, including the US, Australia and Canada, have been required to apply for one of the UK entry permits since the scheme began, which is loosely modeled on the US ESTA programme.

The list will be extended to include EU citizens on April 2, although Irish citizens will be exempt.

EU and UK citizens have been caught up in increased border formalities since frictionless travel disappeared with the implementation of the Brexit deal at the end of 2020, four years after the referendum.

Visitors already face tougher passport checks at the UK and EU borders, creating barriers for Eurostar and Channel ports.

UK citizens will also be caught up in new EU biometric border checks, which are due to be introduced later this year but have been repeatedly delayed. A separate EU visa waiver program similar to the UK’s ETA is also due to launch in 2025.

Under the UK immigration price hike, the cost of other services, including naturalization as a British citizen, will also rise.