The International Air Transport Association (IATA) opposes the UK Home Office proposal to increase the costs of UK Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) by 60 per cent to GBP 16.
\nWillie Walsh, IATA\u2019s Director General, commented as follows: \u201cProposing to increase ETA costs just a week after the system was introduced is bewildering. If implemented it would be a self-inflicted blow to the UK\u2019s tourism competitiveness. In November the government laid out plans to increase tourist arrivals by 30 per cent to reach 50 million annually by 2030 in pursuit of tourism\u2019s economic benefits. Gouging these travelers with a 60 per cent increase in the ETA is a very bad start. The added cost would come on top of the Air Passenger Duty (ADP)\u2014the biggest travel tax in the world\u2014which itself will increase again in April. And let\u2019s not forget that travelers have choice and the EU\u2019s ETIAS to visit Europe will be far better value\u2014costing about a third as much as this proposed pricing and lasting a year longer.
\nIt’s time for the UK government to see the big picture. It has everything to gain by making the UK a more cost-competitive travel destination\u2014including the substantial tax revenues that travelers generate. It makes no sense to discourage visitors with high costs even before they set foot in the country.\u201d
\nUK aviation and tourism supports 1.6 million jobs currently, providing $160.7 billion to the UK\u2019s GDP. Please see the IATA Value of Air Transport to the United Kingdom study for further details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) opposes the UK Home Office proposal to increase the costs of UK Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) by 60 per cent to GBP 16. Willie Walsh, IATA\u2019s Director General, commented as follows: \u201cProposing to increase ETA costs just a week after the system was introduced is bewildering. If implemented it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":null,"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[96,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-featured-en"],"yoast_head":"\n