The United States has been charging visitors for electronic travel authorisation since 2009 and now the United Kingdom and the European Union are rolling out entry fees, too.
Visa waiver schemes have been around for a while. The US has the US$21 ESTA (NZ$35), valid for two years, and Europe will be introducing the 7 euro ETIAS in 2024 (about NZ$12). That one will last you three years.
The UK, you may recall, rather famously fled the EU coop a couple of years back. Now it's revealed the price tag for its own scheme, the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation): £10 for two years (about NZ$20).
Admittedly, that's only about the price of a large fish and chips, but it does mean access to the nations that gave us the Tower of London and Edinburgh Castle will be more expensive than a pass to the home countries of the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Sagrada Familia and the Acropolis combined.
The plan is for the scheme to be rolled out for people who don't require a visa to enter the United Kingdom - including US and EU nationals - by the end of 2024, with the first nation to join the scheme being Qatar later this year.
CNN
