The UK responds to the European Union’s ETIAS tourist tax with one of its own

THE UK is set to introduce a new requirement for visa-exempt visitors to Britain that will see them fill out an online form and pay a fee to enter the country.

From next year, tourists from Spain and other European countries will be required to complete an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) form before boarding a plane to the UK.

The measure will affect all citizens of the European Union and is a tit-for-tat response to the EU’s ETIAS tourist tax, which has caused consternation among Spanish tourism entrepreneurs.

The ostensible purpose of ETA, according to the UK Home Office, as with ETIAS, is to improve security and digitize UK borders.

Visitors will be required to disclose their full name, date of birth, country of citizenship and travel details.

There will also be a fee to pay, though how much it will be has not been disclosed: the EU will charge Brits €7 to enter the Schengen Zone once ETIAS takes effect in November.

Most applicants should receive a response immediately, but more complex requests may require the attention of a customs officer and may take longer.

Visitors from all countries that do not require a visa, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and dozens more, will also need to fill out the new tax.

The ETA announcement, which came just weeks after reaction to the EU’s ETIAS heated up, will appear to many observers as simply a reciprocal tax.

ETIAS has drawn strong criticism from some quarters, and details of how it will be applied and where the money raised will end up are still unknown.

Tourism chiefs on the Costa del Sol criticized the ETIAS as a threat to the region’s international competitiveness and told the EU to ‘leave tourism alone!’

Francisco Salado, president of Tourism and Planning said last month: “Stop inventing new taxes.

“Every time we introduce a charge, we do it to improve the quality of tourism. But a tax like this does not increase quality.

“But what it does do is put a cost on the end product and make us less competitive.”

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