As the year draws to a close, we will have welcomed thousands of visitors to…
TA Weekly Update – 12th September 2024
In this newsletter:
- Home Office confirms full roll-out dates for ETA
- UK Gov issues advice on EES
- CMS Select Committee Chair elected
- TMI Convention
Home Office confirms full roll-out dates for ETA
The Home Office has confirmed the roll-out plan for the implementation of ETA. So far, only travellers from the GCC plus Jordan need to apply for an ETA, but that will soon change as everyone travelling here who does not need a visa will need to apply for an ETA. This will be a massive change to the way many of our inbound tourists visit.
The upcoming key dates are as follows:
- Eligible non-Europeans can apply in advance from 27 November 2024 and will need an ETA to travel to the UK from 8 January 2025.
- Eligible Europeans can apply from 5 March 2025 and will need an ETA to travel to the UK from 2 April 2025.
So, by April 2025, all visitors who do not need a visa, except British and Irish citizens, will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) – a digital permission to travel to the UK.
There is public-facing information on GOV.UK here:
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Check when you can get an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) – GOV.UK |
The Home Office are extremely keen to ask for cooperation from the sector in getting the message out to businesses and tourists about the change. They will also be undertaking their own communications campaign around the world to get the message out.
You may wish to download the latest ‘Partner Pack’ of promotional materials, model website content, social media assets and factsheets here:
We are pleased to see that some – but by no means all – of these assets have been translated into other languages. Sadly the application is still only available in English.
We continue to be concerned about various aspects of the ETA programme including the need for an ETA for all transferring passengers, the lack of a carve out for short Ireland/Northern Ireland trips, the cost and validity period compared to the forthcoming EU ETIAS, and the fact that this will be an additional cost and bureaucratic burden for all non-visa inbound tourists. That said, we need to make the best of the situation before us, which means ensuring that our tourists understand the new system and get ready for it.
A reminder about some of the details:
An ETA costs £10 and permits multiple journeys to the UK of up to six months at a time over two years or until the holder’s passport expires – whichever is sooner. ETA applies to:
- visits of up to 6 months for tourism, visiting family and friends, business or short-term study.
- visits of up to 3 months on the Creative Worker visa concession.
- visits for a Permitted Paid Engagement.
- transiting through the UK – including if you’re not going through UK border control
Information events
The Home Office will be hosting weekly ETA information events for travel, tourism, business travellers and education organisations. These provide an opportunity for those with limited knowledge of ETA to hear about how travel to the UK is changing, and to ask questions.
Please feel free to distribute the link below around your networks and encourage members to join and get informed.
UK Gov issues advice on EES
The UK Government have launched a webpage with some EES information which is a good step forward in ensuring that our outbound tourists are prepared for what they will need to do at the EU border.
As a reminder, EU EES is scheduled to be implemented in November this year, with their advance passenger permission system, ETIAS – the equivalent of our ETA – coming into effect around six months later. Again, this will be a big change for tourists and will need significant communication.
CMS Select Committee Chair elected
Dame Caroline Dinenage MP (Cons, Gosport) has been elected unopposed to continue her role as Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in the House of Commons. Dame Caroline had this role towards the end of the previous parliament and it is great that she has been returned by her colleagues to continue the brief.
We met with Dame Caroline in the previous parliament, and look forward to working with her again. We have already met with several of the clerks and specialists on the committee since the election to brief them on a number of areas that the committee may like to consider looking at.
One of the areas Dame Caroline pledged to work on was visas and mobility saying:
“Visa and mobility are impacting sectors from business events and tourism, to touring musicians and artists. It’s costing jobs, opportunity and cultural experience – impacting us all. Under my chairmanship, the Committee will continue to push for urgent solutions.”
TMI Convention
I am pleased to be speaking at this year’s TMI Convention in Birmingham. Tourism Alliance colleagues are warmly invited to attend.
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