Irish will be hit with $10 tourist fee to U.S. on visa waiver program

Posted on Friday, February 26, 2010 at 04:41 PM

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Want to come to the U.S. from Ireland soon? That'll be an extra $10 please.

A new bill on its way to President Obama's desk will create a national tourism agency partially funded by the $10 fee which will only be levied on visitors from countries in the visa waiver program.

Which includes Ireland.

The new agency will charge visa waiver visitors the $10 once every two years once they register online with Homeland Security's Electronic System for Travel Authorization.

Opponents of the legislation say that the new fee is only going to deter visitors from coming, not encourage them.

They cite the fee as being one more headache to add to the tight security and immigration procedures.

On the other hand, seeing as I'm feeling even-handed, I'm struck by how little America actually spends on marketing itself.

Little old Greece spent $100 million on tourism marketing in 2005 (which CNN says is the most recent year figures are available) while the U.S. spent just $6m on a national effort.

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Nonhippyhippy | Feb 27, 2010, 03:23 PM EST

If a $10 fee will put you off going on holiday to the US then you couldn't afford it in the first place... The hassle of the security in airports is definitely something that might put people off, but $10 is a totally negligible fee when put in with the cost of flights/accommodation/spending money etc..

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TheYank | Feb 26, 2010, 05:21 PM EST

This is a dumb move. $10 isn't enough for all the hassle involved in making such a system work.

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