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ETIAS: EU postpones launch of €7 visa for tourists

The EU has postponed the start date of its €7 ETIAS visa for tourists - due to come into effect later this year - until 2024.

ETIAS: EU postpones launch of €7 visa for tourists
Photo by ERIC PIERMONT / AFP

The ETIAS visa system requires that all tourists and visitors from non-EU countries register online in advance for the €7 visa, which lasts for three years.

It was due to come into effect in November but, as reported in British newspaper The Independent, the start date has now been changed by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs at the European Commission in Brussels.

Prospective visitors to the EU from non-EU countries such as the UK, USA and Canada are now told: “It is expected that the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) will be operational in 2024.”

This comes after the EU’s EES system – which will bring in stricter biometric border checks for travellers – was postponed from May 2023 until “the end of the year”.

You can read a full explanation of how EES and ETIAS work HERE.

Both systems were originally due to be introduced in 2021, but were postponed because of the pandemic. They were then scheduled to come into effect in May (for EES) and November (for ETIAS) 2023.

However, there has been pushback from member states who say they are not ready, while major fears have been raised about the effect of enhanced EES checks on the UK-France border, which has already seen long queues at peak times since Brexit.

Bosses at Eurotunnel, the Port of Dover and Eurostar have all raised concerns about long delays due to the extra time needed to make the enhanced checks at the border.

John Keefe, chief corporate and public affairs officer for Eurotunnel, told The Independent: “As a concept, EES/ETIAS is a step closer to the smart, digital border that we would all like to see operating in the future.

“But it is important that when it is introduced it is fully functional, has been thoroughly tested and that the introduction is progressive to allow both operators and travellers to familiarise themselves with the new requirements.”

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TRAVEL NEWS

Hotel prices in Norway’s major cities see sharp rise

The price of a hotel room in Norway is now up to almost 30 percent higher compared to 2020, a new analysis has found.

Hotel prices in Norway’s major cities see sharp rise

New figures from the Benchmarking Alliance show that hotels in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Tromsø have increased massively compared to before the outbreak of the pandemic, financial newspaper Dagens Næringlsiv (DN) reports.

Hotel prices in Oslo rose the sharpest, increasing by 27.5 percent over the past few years. Meanwhile, the cost of a room in all five cities measured had increased by over 20 percent.

Tromsø, a popular destination for dog sledging and the Northern Lights, is the most expensive place to book a room. Booking a hotel with breakfast costs about 2,1000 kroner, including VAT, a night.

A hotel stay in Oslo costs an average of 1,232 kroner per night without breakfast or a 12 percent VAT charge. Rooms in Stavanger cost 1,207 kroner, while a bed in Trondheim was slightly cheaper at 1,183 kroner per night.

The higher costs come despite the fact that the occupancy rate, the number of booked rooms in hotels, has fallen since 2020. The only city to see increased demand in hotel stays was Bergen, which was also the cheapest out of Norway’s big cities to book a hotel room in. A room in Bergen costs 1,076 kroner a night on average.

“Prices are on the rise, and tourism is on the way back. And in the exclusive segment, we have fantastic growth. In particular, we see that the increase from the American market, helped by a very strong dollar, adds extra fuel to the fire. The weak Norwegian krone means that the exclusive products Norway has to offer to appear reasonable compared to other countries where price increases have been much higher. So even though hotel prices have increased quite a bit in Norway, there are many indications that we have even more to go on in terms of prices,” Kjetil Smørås who owns the De Bergenske hotel chain, which includes hotels such as Bergen Børs, Zander K and Grand Hotel Terminus, told DN.

Kristin Krohn Devold, managing director of the largest employer organisation for the hotel and tourism sector, NHO Reiseliv, said that the increased prices didn’t translate to higher profits. Instead, hotels were increasing prices to keep up with increased costs, he argued.

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