US makes life even more dif...

It's no wonder that the number of travellers to the US is declining. With constant stories of mistreatment of air passengers by the TSA, people mistakenly finding themselves on no-fly lists and unable to remove themselves, and others being denied entry for petty reasons, I am not surprised at all when I hear comments from people who would otherwise jump at the chance to travel to the US saying that they really can't be bothered anymore.

Well, now it's about to get just that little bit more difficult to go to the US, with the signing into law of an electronic authorisation scheme, for travellers from 15 EU countries.

"It will require people from 15 western EU states who now do not need visas to register online and give details of their passport, travel plans and planned social and business meeting at least two days before departure"

How many travellers know the details of their social meetings before they depart? I can also imagine that there will be huge chunk of travellers who also have no idea what their travel plans will be, other than their arrival and departure dates. I can imagine now that a proportion of the travelling public will now throw up their hands in frustration and fly to Canada instead.

Not surprisingly, the EU is now thinking of retaliating, by imposing a similar scheme on American citizens.

Links

• U.S. Authorizes, E.U. Considers ‘Electronic Travel Authorization System -- World Hum