BTB
A dramatic rise in the charges made for visas is deterring people from visiting the United Kingdom, according to the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA). In July this year, the cost of the typical tourist visa, allowing multiple entries to the UK, rose nearly 40 percent from £36 to £50 (approx. US$63 to US$87). For students, the increase was more than double, from £36 to £85 (US$63 to US$148). In the months that followed, the UK suffered an 18 percent decline in visa applications.
The rise in visa fees means that a family of four considering a touring holiday in Europe is now looking at a bill of £200 (US$348) just to enter the UK – a visit which may only last two or three days. Most of the other European Union countries operate a common visa policy allowing entry across any EU border, then free movement across national borders on the European mainland, under an agreement known as the Schengen Treaty. A Schengen Visa, which gives them the freedom of most of Europe, costs as little as £27 (US$47). According to the ETOA, this deters people from including the UK on a European tour, and tour operators had to devise European itineraries that avoided Britain. Inbound tour operators specializing in the budget markets of China, India and Russia have all complained to ETOA about the price of UK visas and cite the high price as a major obstacle to selling travel to the UK. “What causes particular concern is that visa costs impact the most price sensitive origin countries,” said Tom Jenkins, executive director of ETOA. “These are also evolving markets. In the short term, a drop in demand of 15 percent from China or India perhaps matters only to specialist operators. But, the customers we are driving away are the vanguard of future volume. Each visitor tells twenty people of their experience. Thus for every thousand that we deter now, twenty thousand potential visitors are lost,” said Jenkins. He said that analysis of official data from the UK Interior Ministry, the Home Office, and from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) provided strong evidence that the dramatic hike in the price of a visa to visit the UK has deterred many visitors. “There seems to have been an assumption behind these increases that people will come to Britain whatever the cost. This assumption has been proved wrong. It has always been difficult to get a visa, it is now perceived as being disproportionately expensive.” However, the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, dispute ETOA’s analysis. The government departments say the London bombings in July were the main factor in putting people off visiting Britain. They say there is no evidence that any fee increase has been a dominant factor in any reduction in visa demand. They accept that total visa demand went down in the period from July to September, compared with the same period last year. But, they add that forecasts of lost tourist income are the result of the impact of the July London bombings on visitors whether or not they required a visa. “We have looked at trends for visitors who do not require a visa. A drop in demand would indicate reduced travel to the UK for reasons that have nothing to with visa fees,” said a spokeswoman for the UK Visas section of the Foreign Office. “It would seem reasonable to conclude that demand from visa nationals has also suffered as a result of the London bombings.” The Foreign Office spokeswoman said that other factors such as the rise in the cost of travel because of fuel price increases also have an impact that affects the numbers of visa and non-visa nationals alike. “Most airlines operating long-haul routes are now levying fuel surcharges. In many cases they appear to exceed any additional cost relating to increased visa fees,” she said. “Fuel costs do not just manifest themselves in the form of surcharges. More expensive fuel is putting the brakes on economic growth worldwide. We believe that may be having a broad knock-on effect for travelers.”
