I regret to report that my new favorite cruise cabin starts at $675 per person per day.
17.06.2024 - 22:55 / euronews.com / Angela Symons
After being delayed for years, the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is expected to come into force this autumn.
Brits and other ‘third-country’ holidaymakers will need to register their arrival and departure from EU and Schengen Area countries by having their photo and fingerprints taken at passport control. This will replace the manual passport stamp.
But many travellers remain uncertain about how the system - and the follow up European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) due in mid-2025 - will work.
Euronews Travel spoke to travel bodies, agents and experts to find out what advice they are giving their customers ahead of the slated launch.
A number of major travel agents told Euronews Travel that they are yet to receive questions or official guidance on the EES scheme.
But travel trade association ABTA has already published tips and advice for planning and booking a holiday under the new system.
Despite reports that the scheme is set to come into force on 5 October 2024, an ABTA spokesperson emphasised that the exact launch dates for both EES and ETIAS have not yet been confirmed.
This uncertainty has led to scepticism among some travel agents.
“We are giving no advice at all as we are waiting to see if the scheme actually goes ahead,” says Noel Josephides, chairman of UK travel agent Sunvil.
Likely due to a lack of awareness among the public, he says Sunvil has only received one comment on the scheme from a client who said he was “fed up” with regulations and “would not travel in Europe again”.
“The more bureaucracy the worse it will be for travel freedoms,” says Josephides, who agrees that schemes like the EES are likely to put people off travelling to Europe.
He points to Olympics-led delays to the launch as proof the scheme is expected to be disruptive for travellers.
“Whenever they launch it, it will be bad for tourism and will complicate travel, otherwise France would have accepted its introduction before the Olympics in France this summer.”
He’s not the only one who is concerned about the impact of EES on travellers.
In April, P&O Ferries raised concerns about the implementation of the scheme at the Port of Dover.
“The EES process was designed for pedestrian passengers passing through an airport, and is fundamentally unsuited for a port environment,” the company’s European Operations Director, Jack Steer, wrote in a letter to UK Parliament.
He said that, with the current layout of the port making it impossible to separate passenger and freight traffic for processing, “serious disruption” would be unavoidable.
EES checks for flight passengers will generally be completed on arrival at your destination. But for ferry journeys from the Port of Dover and international trains, they will take place
I regret to report that my new favorite cruise cabin starts at $675 per person per day.
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