The cost of a travel permit required for EU and US citizens to enter the British airways will rise from £10 to £16, the government said, warning the cost would hurt tourism.
Since the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme came into effect this month, many visitors to the UK who do not require a visa will have to apply for a digital permission to visit the country.
Currently visitors pay £10 for a permit that is valid for two years and allows them to visit multiple times.
But the Home Office said the cost of the permit would rise from £10 to £16, which would “help reduce the migration and border system’s reliance on taxpayer funding”. The government department has not set a date for the changes, saying it would raise an extra £269mn a year.
Tourism groups and airlines criticised the changes and said they breached EU rules. This has raised the cost of visiting Britain in the wake of the EU’s plan to charge €7 for the planned travel authorisation scheme for all visitors who do not need a visa.
Richard Toomer, executive director of the Tourism Alliance trade association, said the decision to raise the charge was “shocking”.
“This is a blow to our European visitors in particular, as they have to apply for permission in advance to travel to the UK in the first place,” he said.
Tourism to the UK is worth £74 billion a year, and in November ministers announced a target to increase visitor numbers by almost a third to 50 million a year by 2030.
But Toomer said the target would be missed “if the government continues to see tourists as just a money cow”.
