entry – USA NEWS LIVE

British visitors from dozens of nations could have to pay a brand new entry fee

chandankumarsoft — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 02:51:05 +0000

If you might be traveling to the UK this week, you could have to apply for a travel authorization online before you permit.

Starting Wednesday, the United Kingdom would require U.S. residents, Canadian residents and nationals from greater than three dozen other countries to have a so-called electronic travel authorization (ETA).

Here's what travelers have to know:

What is an Electronic Travel Authorization?

The ETA is a pre-approval for travelers from countries that don’t require a visa within the UK.

The UK launched this system in 2024 for visiting residents from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It will come into force for quite a lot of other countries on Wednesday.

Travelers will still have to undergo immigration control upon arrival. The United States has similar digital authorization requirements for nationals of European Union countries, the United Kingdom, and other countries whose residents don’t require visas to enter the country. Later in 2025, EU countries would require them from US residents and nationals of other countries with similar criteria.

You don’t need an ETA if you have got a visa and are eligible to live, work or study within the UK

How do I get one?

You can apply online using the UK ETA app Android And iPhone. The application costs £10 (about $12.50) and is valid for 2 years and for visits of as much as six months. The fee is paid by bank card.

To apply, travelers must upload photos of their passport and themselves.

How long does it take?

Applicants could wait about three days for a call via email.

What about children?

Every person eligible for the ETA needs one, including babies and youngsters.

What happens if I connect within the UK?

You will need an ETA even in case you are traveling to a UK airport for a connecting flight to a different country.

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China declares visa-free entry at cruise ports to spice up tourism

chandankumarsoft — Thu, 16 May 2024 08:57:37 +0000

Travelers entering China via international cruises can stay in chosen provinces of the country for as much as 15 days with out a visa the federal government said on Wednesdayas Beijing tries to spice up its cruise and tourism industries.

According to an announcement from China's Immigration Administration (CNI), regulations require foreigners to enter through one in all the country's 13 coastal cruise ports.

Visitors must travel as a part of a tour group of at the least two people organized by a Chinese travel agency and leave the country on the identical cruise. Tour groups can travel to Beijing or other coastal provinces.

“The full implementation of the visa-free entry policy for foreign cruise tourists is an important pillar to accelerate the development of China's cruise economy and an important measure to promote China's institutional opening,” CNI said in an announcement.

China's cruise business has made great progress this yr, with the country's first domestically built cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, making its first voyage on January 1, it said state media.

On Wednesday, seven cruise ports were added as permitted entry points under China's existing visa-free transit policy, along with the previous 31.

Visa-free transit allows residents of certain countries to remain in China with out a visa for as much as 144 hours while transiting to a different country. In November, Norway was added to the countries eligible for visa-free transit to China, bringing the entire to 54.

The latest visa-free travel policy reflects China's “determination and attitude” to “open up to the world” and is a step toward higher exchanges between China and foreign countries, CNI said.

China has been desirous to win back tourists because it reopened its borders last yr and commenced restoring international flight routes, ending three years of strict COVID-19 guidelines.

In December, the country granted temporary visa exemptions for travel as much as 15 days to residents of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Beijing too issue a reciprocal visa exemption agreement with Singapore in February. The regulation applies until November of this yr.

Companies have also sought to enhance the travel experience of foreign tourists. Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group recently allowed visitors in China to spend as much as $2,000 a yr through its Alipay mobile app without having to register their ID with the corporate.

The effort comes because the country has didn’t increase the variety of foreign travelers back to pre-pandemic levels, although domestic tourism in China has recovered, based on NIA data.

Data shows that 13 million foreigners entered or left China in the primary three months of this yr, a decline of over 40% in comparison with the identical period in 2019.

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Venice introduces entry fees for day-trippers to curb overtourism

chandankumarsoft — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:14:48 +0000

VENICE, Italy — With the world media watching, the delicate lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro ($5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will deter visitors to make the town more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's central train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates of the plan's test phase through July, which also provided separate entrances for tourists, residents, students and staff.

“We need to find a new balance between tourists and residents,” said Simone Venturini, the town’s top tourism official. “Of course we have to protect the residents’ rooms and prevent the arrival of day-trippers on certain days.”

However, not all residents are convinced of the brand new system's effectiveness in curbing mass tourism, insisting that only a population resurgence can restore balance in a city where narrow streets and water buses are sometimes clogged with tourists.

Hundreds of Venetians protested against this system, marching celebratory through the town's important bus station behind banners reading “No to tickets, yes to services and housing.” The demonstrators briefly scuffled with police in riot gear, who blocked their entry into the town, before changing course and entering across one other bridge accompanied by plainclothes police. The demonstration ended peacefully in a piazza.

Tourists arriving on the important station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards, politely guiding anyone unaware of the brand new requirements through the technique of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

Arianna Cecilia, a tourist from Rome visiting Venice for the primary time, said she found it “strange” to need to pay to enter a city in her home country and be directed through separate entrances for tourists. She and her boyfriend lived in nearby Treviso and downloaded the QR code as needed. But as she enjoyed a view of Venice's canals for the primary time, she was still caught off guard when she saw the doorway signs and her friend told her to get out the ticket.

On the opposite side of the doorway areas, staff in yellow vests were conducting random checks on the station. Violators face fines of fifty to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” had been applied within the rollout.

The requirement only applies to people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Outside these times, access is free and uncontrolled.

Venice has long suffered from the pressures of overtourism, and officials hope the pilot project can assist provide more accurate numbers to raised manage the phenomenon.

The city is tracking the variety of hotel visitors, which was 4.6 million last yr and is 16% below pre-pandemic peaks. But the variety of day visitors, who make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A wise control room arrange through the pandemic is tracking arrivals using cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a yr, said Michele Zuin, the town's top economic official. This includes each day trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the information was incomplete.

“It is clear that the contribution that day-trippers pay gives us more reliable data,” he said.

Venturini said the town becomes tense when the variety of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police arrange a one-way system for pedestrians to maintain crowds moving.

Residents who oppose the day tourist tax insist that the answer to Venice's problems is to spice up the resident population and the services they need, restrict short-term rentals to offer more housing and convey families back from the mainland.

Last yr, Venice reached a big milestone when the variety of tourist beds exceeded the variety of official residents for the primary time, which now stands below 50,000 within the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Issuing an entry ticket to a city will not reduce the number of visitors by even a single unit,” said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest against the measure on Thursday.

“You pay a ticket for the subway, to visit a museum or an amusement park. You don't pay a ticket to enter a city. “This is the last symbolic step in a project of an idea by this municipality to expel residents from Venice,” he said.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the opening day, which coincided with an Italian holiday, successful, recording 15,700 paying visitors, 50% greater than expected.

Venturini, the tourism official, said interest in Venice's pilot program was also strong from other places affected by mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and communities abroad equivalent to Barcelona, Spain and Amsterdam.

But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, doesn’t see the fee as a panacea. Neighboring apartments of their residential constructing near the famous Rialto Bridge, once occupied by families, at the moment are short-term rentals.

The butcher shop on the corner is closed. Still, she identified that the brand new entrance fee will proceed to permit young people to flock to the town within the evenings for the normal aperitivo, which might get rowdy.

She distributed fake European Union passports for “Venice, open city,” underscoring the irony of the brand new system and questioning its legal status with quotes from the Italian structure, which guarantees its residents the suitable “to live in any part of the city to move or stop freely”. the national territory.”

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It's not Pompeii. It is a city where we must fight to keep families inhabited and businesses open again. That would counteract this wild tourism,” said Rodino.

image credit : www.mercurynews.com

National Park Week is just across the corner – and which means free entry for visitors

chandankumarsoft — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:54:33 +0000

Visitors to national parks will receive free entry on April twentieth because the federal government is waiving entry fees to mark the start National Park Week.

National Park Week lasts nine days, from April twentieth to twenty eighth.

The National Park Service monitors 429 Parks In the USA, 63 of them are national parks. The rest Examples include national monuments, national battlefields and national historic sites.

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Most offer free entry in any respect times. However, 108 parks Don't do this – including among the hottest, like Grand Canyon, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Joshua Tree and Glacier National Parks.

Her Entrance fees — which usually range from $20 to $35 per vehicle — might be waived on April 20.

The fee structure can vary: some parks charge per person quite than per vehicle, and different fees may apply for motorcycles, for instance.

April twentieth is considered one of them 6 days in 2024, when access to all national parks might be free. They include:

January 15: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr
April 20: First day of National Park Week
June nineteenth: June nineteenth
August 4: Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act
September 28: National Public Lands Day
November 11: Veterans Day

Please note the extra entry requirements

However, there’s a caveat. While all parks could also be free on nowadays, some still require an extra reservation to enter. These reservations typically incur an extra fee.

For example, Yosemite National Park in California requires reservations on many days this yr to drive into or through the park during peak hours – between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time. These include, for instance, holidays and weekends between April thirteenth and June thirtieth and every day from July 1st to August sixteenth.

Yosemite visitors are usually not permitted entry without prior registration Online reservation prematurely. They cost $2, are non-refundable and valid for 3 consecutive days.

Additionally, it might make financial sense for visitors to buy an annual pass to the national park even in the event that they plan to go to on a free entry day, depending on the itinerary, said Mary Cropper, travel advisor and senior U.S. specialist at Audley Travel, previously told CNBC.

The $80 annual pass grants unlimited entry to national parks and other federal recreation areas. Some groups can receive discounted and even free annual passes.

For example, a pass would probably be a greater option should you plan to go to multiple parks in a single trip, Cropper said.

“You want to do the math,” she said.

image credit : www.cnbc.com