There is panic as British tourists abandon holiday hotspots over the EU’s new entry fee.

The Foreign Office has issued a warning to UK residents travelling to the EU from the start of November, with the introduction of the new Entry/Exit System.

Under the new rule, all non-EU passengers will be required to have their fingerprints and photo taken on their first entry into the Schengen area.

Travellers may also be questioned on the purpose of their visit, duration of stay, their funds and be asked to provide proof of a return journey.

Seamus McCauley, head of public affairs at Holiday Extras, expressed concerns about the potential impact of the new ETIAS system on UK travellers’ plans.

He said: “Some British travellers have already changed their plans to avoid the EES coming on November 10.”

Referring to a survey carried out by Holiday Extras, he continued: “Five percent of respondents to the same survey said they’d already made changes to avoid the new paperwork, and another 22 percent expected they might do so later.

“More are likely to do the same when ETIAS comes in since there are plenty of alternative destinations that don’t demand the new paperwork.

“Ireland, Cyprus, Albania, Turkey, the Channel Isles, Montenegro, Georgia and anywhere in North Africa like Tunisia, Morocco or Egypt, just to name some of the places you can fly to direct in one to four hours that won’t be adopting the new system.”

In a separate survey, Co-Op Insurance revealed that over one in five – 22 percent – of Brits would be put off travelling to countries in Europe once the new digital border system is introduced.

Nearly half (45 percent) of those who would be put off also do not like the idea of having biometrics data on file for three years, while 38 percent are concerned about long delays.

In the Co-op research, based on 2,005 adults and data for the period January-August 2024 versus January-August 2023, those aged 44 and under are more likely to be put off going to Europe due to long delays at the border than those aged 45 and over.

More than a quarter (28 percent) of 18 to 44-year-olds admitting the new system would dissuade them from travelling to the continent, compared to just 17 percent of over 45s.

It remains to be seen whether the new passport rules will affect the tourism industry in 2025, considering 2024 is expected to be another record-breaking year (especially in Europe) after fully recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.