UK's New Passport Rules Severely Reduce EU School Visits – SchengenVisaInfo.com – SchengenVisaInfo.com

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A recent study conducted by Tourism Alliance has shown that the new passport rules of the United Kingdom have severely decreased school visits from the European Union.
Data has shown that due to the abolition of the ‘List of Travellers’ scheme which permitted EU students in organised school groups to travel to the UK using their national ID cards instead of their passports, the number of students sent to the UK in 2022 dropped by 83 per cent compared to 2019, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
In line with the new rules, all students from the EU must hold a passport. However, not many EU children hold such a document as they can travel around most of Europe by only using their IDs, and for this reason, school visits to the UK are not as frequent as before.
According to Tourism Alliance, the research has shown that due to the new passport rules many EU student groups are being sent to other destinations, such as Ireland, which means that the UK’s economy is also being affected.
It has been revealed that in 2019, around 1.2 million EU students reached the UK for study and cultural purposes, spending over €1 billion in the local economy and supporting around 17,000 jobs.
Taking into account the new rules and the figures for this year, it has been emphasised that the industry is not expected to recover. Operators have already indicated that the number of school groups that will be sent to the UK in 2023 will be down by over 60 per cent. This means that the UK will register a further loss of €681 million.
Commenting on the figures, the Executive Director of Tourism Alliance, Richard Toomer, stressed that the UK’s government should immediately reinstate the List of Travellers scheme or launch a similar scheme that would allow entry for EU students without being required to hold a passport.
Toomer further suggested that the government must recognise the extremely low risk represented by school children travelling to the UK, the insignificant cost, as well as the positive economic impact.
“The immediate financial loss is severe, but as important is the loss of soft power. They were exactly the kind of first-time visitors that we need to attract; not only would they return throughout their lives, but their experience of the regional UK would be amplified back home,” Toomer added.
Additionally, Toomer pointed out that what has happened to the strong English language school industry of the UK is a prime example of the damage done by the policy.

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