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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Visiting the US is about to get more expensive for foreign travelers | |
By Jeanne Bonner, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:00 AM EDT, Sat September 6, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
In travel news this week: a look inside to Waikiki, a taste of | |
Turkey’s beloved brew, plus fees for travelers to the US will rise at | |
the end of September. | |
Visitors to the US from some of the nation’s closest allies will soon | |
be required to pay higher fees outlined in the Trump administration’s | |
“One Big Beautiful Bill.” Specifically, a associated with the | |
Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which processes travel | |
applications from residents of more than 40 countries that are part of | |
the Visa Waiver Program. | |
Those countries include the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, | |
Israel and most of Europe, as well as a handful of countries in other | |
regions, including Qatar in the Middle East. | |
Prior to the passage of President Trump’s signature legislation, | |
applicants to the ESTA system, as it’s known, paid $21. Now that | |
mandatory fee will nearly double on September 30 to $40. | |
It’s one of several fee increases associated with travel to the US | |
from abroad. Travelers arriving through a land border will also see | |
their fees go up with an increase in the I-94 Arrival/Departure Record | |
cost. Right now, travelers required to pay the fee only have to part | |
with $6.That amount jumps to $30 at the end of the month. | |
Lastly, travelers from China will be asked to pay a $30 enrollment fee | |
for the Electronic Visa Update System. The September 30 effective date | |
for the fee increases was outlined in a recent . | |
The increase in fees, combined with the looming $250 “visa integrity | |
fee” for many travelers from non-visa waiver countries, comes at a | |
time when travel to the US from abroad is in a major slump. | |
As CNN’s Natasha Chen reported, to the US are staying away. The World | |
Travel and Tourism Council projected in May that the United States will | |
lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025. It was | |
the only country out of 184 economies analyzed by the council, a global | |
tourism advocacy organization, that will see a decline this year. | |
The new visa integrity fee has not yet been applied. A spokesperson for | |
the Department of Homeland Security repeated to CNN that it “requires | |
cross-agency coordination before implementation.” | |
Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown said he didn’t think | |
the increase in fees will be much of a “hindrance” for most | |
travelers. But he said the visa integrity fee is an entirely new thing. | |
“It will be intriguing to see because lots of questions are out | |
there,” he told CNN Travel. “So we pay the fee, but how does it get | |
refunded? Who is tracking compliance? How do you prove compliance?” | |
North Korea’s stellar but largely empty beachfront resort | |
At the newly built, visitors will find miles of white sand, turquoise | |
waters, and rows of pristine hotels. None other than North Korean | |
leader Kim Jong Un hopes the development will be his country’s answer | |
to Waikiki. | |
With a few differences, however. The resort is divided into domestic | |
and international zones. And in the international section, a group of | |
Russian tourists recently were among the few visitors to be found. CNN | |
talked to some of them to hear about their vacation. | |
The majesty of the Hagia Sophia | |
What’s it like to visit a 1,600-year-old that has outlasted empires? | |
Well, to put it simply: unlike any other experience. That’s because | |
no other place on Earth has Christian mosaics of saints and Byzantine | |
rulers juxtaposed with Islamic calligraphy, also known as Hüsn-i Hat | |
(they are large roundels displaying the names of Allah, the Prophet | |
Mohammed and the four caliphs, the leaders of Islam following the death | |
of Mohammed). | |
Turkish coffee with a side of destiny | |
Coffee is a much-beloved drink in Turkey. It also has a history that | |
stretches back centuries. | |
Turkish coffee is a ritual and arguably the ancestor of all modern | |
bean-based caffeine kicks. It’s a nearly 500-year-old piece of | |
history, inscribed by UNESCO on its list. | |
The story of Turkish coffee, however, begins not in Turkey, but in | |
Yemen. Here’s | |
From nurse to nomad: She’s living full-time on cruise ships | |
Belencia Wallace is living the dream, if quitting work and living | |
full-time on a cruise ship is your idea of a good time — and it | |
should be. Wallace, known as Ladybug Travel, is a registered nurse who | |
sold nearly everything she owned to spend 15 months straight at sea. | |
Even if you aren’t planning a 15-month sea-based adventure, a | |
water-resistant sunscreen is a vacation essential if you’re hitting | |
some waves. Our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and | |
recommendations guide owned by CNN, have to the best. | |
In case you missed it | |
Southwest Airlines’ new planes are equipped with a barrier by the | |
cockpit. | |
It’s for when the door is opened mid-flight. | |
China’s bullet trains whisk travelers between cities. | |
They also make travelers feel they’ve been. | |
Mall runs and night swims save the summer in the United Arab Emirates. | |
Daytime temperatures top 104 degrees in. | |
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