Starting April 2, 2025, if you’re set to visit the UK as a European tourist, you need an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). This permit lets you stick around for up to six months per trip while remaining valid for two years. It’s a bit like America’s ESTA—in fact, the system was first introduced for seven Gulf nations, then expanded to roughly fifty other countries (including Japan, Australia, and the United States) on January 8, and is now being rolled out for European tourists as well.
A new, paid formality has now been introduced for European travelers. For those keen on securing this electronic ticket—sometimes casually called “sesame”—applications have been available since March 5, either via a dedicated application or on the British government’s website. Initially, you’ll part with a fee of about £10 (that’s roughly 12 euros), but starting April 9 this will jump to around £16 (close to 19 euros). This nearly 60% fee hike was announced back in January, with British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper noting that the aim is, in most cases, to ease the immigration system’s dependence on public funds. The minister added that once everything is in place, the ETA program will finally bridge the old authorization gap and give a clear picture of who’s visiting the UK.
By the end of 2024, over 1.1 million applications had already come in from Gulf national citizens, raking in around £11 million (just upwards of 13 million euros). Looking ahead to 2025, expectations are that the revenues will be even heftier. Based on the 37.68 million visitors seen in 2023, British immigration services might collect nearly £376.8 million (about 450 million euros), and when you factor in the fee rise from April 9, the total tops could surge to roughly £602.9 million, or approximately €750.5 million. It seems likely, too, that after the pandemic’s lingering effects, traveler numbers will surpass those of 2023—a year that generated only about £58 billion (just over €69 billion) in tourism revenue, according to a UNWTO report.
Not only is the UK making its move, but similar tweaks are in the offing within the European Union. European tourists from countries that already require a tourist visa won’t need an ETA, while those planning to live, work or study in the UK must now apply for an electronic visa—a fairly new twist from the British side. Across the Channel, the EU is gearing up to implement a computerized Entry/Exit System (EES) to track who comes and goes from the Schengen Area, although its implementation has been pushed back until October 2025. And by the end of 2026, a system akin to both America’s ESTA and Britain’s ETA—dubbed ETIAS—should be up and running, letting tourists preapply in the 30 Schengen countries for a modest fee of around seven euros.