Nationals from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Jordan will soon be only required to pay £10 to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
The ETA will allow them to visit the UK multiple times over a two-year period.
Currently, Gulf nationals pay £30 per visit to the UK under the current Electronic Visa Wavier (EVW) scheme and Jordanian nationals £100 for a visit visa.
The scheme is set to launch for Qatari nationals in October 2023, and for the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Jordan in February 2024 – ahead of a worldwide expansion throughout 2024.
Earlier this year, the UK government announced plans to introduce a new ETA scheme as part of a digitisation of the UK border by 2025 to further enhance border security and the customer experience.
An ETA is a digital permission to travel for those visiting or transiting through the UK who do not need a visa for short stays, or who do not currently hold another UK visa.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said: “Visitors from the Gulf states and Jordan make a huge contribution to the UK’s tourism industry and the new ETA scheme will make it easier and cheaper for them to travel to the UK.
“The cost of an ETA will be one of the best value in the world compared to similar international schemes.
“This small additional cost to visitors will enable us to bolster the security of the UK border and keep our communities safe.”
Lord Ahmad, minister for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, added: “This scheme is further proof of the strong partnership between the UK and countries across the region.
“By cutting costs and visa requirements, the ETA scheme will ensure visitors from the Gulf states and Jordan can enjoy travelling with ease to the UK, boosting business and tourism links between our countries.
“Gulf visitors are highly valuable to the UK economy, with over 790,000 Gulf visitors spending £2 billion during their stays in the UK last year.”
The move to the ETA scheme means that the visa requirement will be removed for nationals from GCC states and Jordan, bringing the requirements for them to visit the UK in line with other visitors, such as those from the US and Australia.
The application process for an ETA will be entirely digital via a mobile phone app.
To apply, individuals will need to provide biographic and biometric details such as a digital photograph and answer a set of suitability questions.
Joss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound, commented: “The UK already ranks at the bottom for international price competitiveness because of a plethora of taxes and costs such as the high rates of VAT on hospitality, punishingly high Air Passenger Duty and the removal of tax free shopping.
“Unfortunately, charging visitors a fee to come to the UK will only exacerbate this situation and potentially act as an additional barrier to the growth in international visitation to the UK.
“Whilst we have begun to see welcome signs of recovery to the UK’s fifth largest export sector, we continue to lag behind our European neighbours, most of which are more price competitive and are not held back by sky-high taxes and costs.
“We urge the government to keep the cost of the ETA under review as well as the decision to only produce the forms in English, which is in marked contrast to other nations.”
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