BUSINESS NEWS


Travellers in Europe will soon face a trio of new authorisation scheme acronyms: ETA, EES and ETIAS. Inset, Tom Jenkins


Digitisation of Europe’s borders ‘will cut queues’


UK’s trial launch of ETA next month precedes two other schemes. Ian Taylor reports


The UK will launch an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for visitors from Qatar next month in the first stage of a rapid digitisation of borders across Europe involving three separate electronic systems. The ETA is set to launch


on October 25 in a trial with Qatari nationals who will need authorisation to travel to the UK from November 15. The scheme will subsequently


be extended to other Gulf states and rolled out to all non-UK nationals not


64 28 SEPTEMBER 2023


requiring a visa by the end of 2024. The authorisation will cost £10


and be valid for two years. The EU is developing a similar


European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) which UK nationals and other non-EU citizens not requiring a visa will need to enter the EU, probably from early 2025. It will cost €7 and be valid for three years. An EU Entry/Exit System (EES)


will be introduced ahead of ETIAS to register non-EU residents at


the Schengen Area border. This is now expected to launch next year, potentially after the Paris Olympics in July-August, having been repeatedly delayed. ETIAS is expected to come in six months after the EES launch. Philippa Rouse, Home Office


director for migration and citizenship, told a Tourism Alliance policy conference in London last week: “The aim is to roll out the ETA next year,


Continued on page 62 travelweekly.co.uk


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