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The price of travel permits required by EU and US citizens to enter the UK is to rise from £10 to £16, the government said, prompting warnings that the cost would damage tourism.
From the electronic travel authorization scheme It went into effect this monthMost visitors to the UK who do not need a visa must apply for a digital travel permit.
Tourists now pay £10 for a permit which is valid for two years and allows them to take multiple trips.
But then Home Office he said the cost of the permit would rise from £10 to £16 to help “reduce the dependency of the immigration system and limits on taxpayer funding”. The government department has not set a date for the change, which it said would raise an extra £269mn a year.
Tour groups together airplanes criticized the changes, saying they made the cost of visiting the UK uncompetitive due to EU plans to charge all visitors who do not need a visa for the 7 scheduled travel authorization scheme.
Richard Toomer, executive director of the Tourism Alliance, said the decision to raise the fee was “shocking”.
“This is a kick in the teeth for our European tourists as they first need to apply for permission to travel to the UK,” he said.
Tourism is worth £74bn a year to the UK, and ministers in November announced an aim to increase visitor numbers by around a third to 50mn people a year by 2030.
But Toomer said the target would be missed “if the government continues to treat tourists as a cash cow”.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade group Airlines UK, said the change was “very disappointing” but welcomed the Home Office's decision to exempt passengers arriving at UK airports but not entering the country.
Heathrow Airport has warned that its position as Europe's leading airport is under threat from the decision to charge passengers.
Visitors from more than 50 countries including the US, Australia and Canada have been required to apply for a visa to enter the UK since the start of the scheme, which is freely available from the US Esta system.
The list will be extended to include EU citizens on April 2, although Irish citizens will be exempt.
Citizens of the EU and the UK have been caught up in the increased border rules since the disappearance of no-deal travel with the implementation of the Brexit agreement at the end of 2020, four years after the test.
Tourists already face stricter passport checks at the UK and EU borders, which has caused disruption at Eurostar and Channel ports.
UK citizens will also be caught up in EU biometric checks, which will be rolled out later this year but have been delayed several times. A separate EU visa system, similar to the UK's ETA, is also due to be introduced by 2025.
As the cost of immigration to the UK increases, the cost of other services including naturalization as a British citizen will also increase.