The UK’s new visa waiver, the electronic travel authorisation (ETA), finally came into full operation yesterday. However, it has been effectively in place for a year in Northern Ireland, confounding widespread predictions of disaster. While that does not rule out serious negative impacts, it is another example of how political discussion across Ireland would benefit from more gradualism and less catastrophism.
Yesterday marked the start of strict enforcement when boarding transport to the UK, hence Aer Lingus requiring passports on all flights to Britain – despite the fact that thanks to the Common Travel Area, an ETA is not required by Irish citizens.
The requirement to carry a passport does not apply when travelling north from the Republic and the British government insists it never will. The situation remains as it has been for at least a year: an ETA is mandatory for citizens of the 85 countries and territories who can visit the UK without a visa, but it is unenforced in Northern Ireland. A cross-Border traveller is no more likely to be asked for it than to be asked for their passport, which is almost never.
Northern Ireland’s tourism industry had still been expecting a calamity – a reasonable prediction, with 70 per cent of holidaymakers arriving via the Republic. Few tourists and even fewer tour companies will thumb their nose at immigration law, enforced or not. Each ETA costs £16 (€18), with no discounts for children. While most are approved online within minutes, applicants are advised to leave three working days for a response. That appeared to be the end of spontaneous jaunts across the Border.
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But if calamity was coming we should know by now. An ETA has been mandatory for most Europeans since April last year, for north Americans and Australians since January last year and for other nationalities in phases since 2023.
There were reports early last year of Northern Ireland being removed from tour itineraries and of businesses noticing a marked drop in bookings. Trade bodies said one in four European Union visitors they surveyed would reconsider trips. Nerves quickly settled and Northern Ireland’s tourism industry posted strong 6 per cent growth in 2025.
There was a large increase in visitors from both Britain and the Republic to Northern Ireland last year, plus more overnight trips by tourists overall. The ETA would fit a trend of more higher-value visitors from afar and more from close to home; it is trivial to the former and irrelevant to the latter
Comparisons of tourism figures are still complicated by post-pandemic fluctuations – 2024 was a bad year, so 2025 can look artificially good. That caveat aside, visitors from North America increased 10 per cent in the first nine months of the year. Visitors from the EU did fall but only in line with the 3 per cent drop in EU visitors to the Republic, which was explained by rising prices, fewer flights and a shortage of accommodation. This suggests the ETA had no discernible impact – cross-Border tourism is overwhelmingly determined by the health of the industry in the Republic.
Another conclusion it is tempting to draw is that American tourists are far wealthier and better-organised than people here often grasp. It was laughable to imagine a small online fee would deter them.
European visitors may be more parsimonious but they are also familiar with the numerous tourist taxes they are charged inside and outside the EU. In a BBC interview last April, the director of a luxury hotel group in Northern Ireland already felt able to say that once the ETA is explained to tourists “it lands fine and they understand it”.
Yet there must be some subtle effects, with the potential to be significant if they nudge the industry in a different direction.
There was a large increase in visitors from both Britain and the Republic to Northern Ireland last year, plus more overnight trips by tourists overall. The ETA would fit a trend of more higher-value visitors from afar and more from close to home; it is trivial to the former and irrelevant to the latter.
Anyone from the 85 non-visa countries who is legally resident in the Republic has also been exempted, after the British government heeded concerns about cross-Border workers and families.
The complexities of residency law mean there are still circumstances where people from these countries living in Ireland might need an ETA, but they can simply buy one – each lasts two years, with unlimited entries of up to six months. There have been no reports of problems or even complaints, although without enforcement it is impossible to tell how much of this is due to ease of compliance and how much to noncompliance.
The political subtext of the ETA appeared to shadow Brexit: inspections at the Border were unacceptable to nationalists, so instead there are intelligence-led checks between Northern Ireland and Britain. However, unionist fears of a new “sea border for people” have also proved unfounded: checks focus on illegal immigration, almost none of which originates in the non-visa countries. Inspectors are looking for passports and visas, not ETAs.
It turns out everyone else was looking for a problem where none exists.
