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CLIA reassures US travelers over Europe visas
Thursday, 07 Mar, 2017
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Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has moved to reassure travelers and the agent community about the confusion over visa-free entry to Europe.
Nothing has changed, says CLIA Europe, and Americans can still travel to EU member countries without a visa.
"U.S. citizens can still travel to the European Union without a visa and this will continue for the foreseeable future. The media has raised awareness of recent actions taken by the European Parliament but they are not legally binding and have yet to be considered by the European Commission," it said in a statement.
The EU’s vote to end visa waiver status for US travelers is in response to US refusal to allow visa-free entry for citizens of five EU nations – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania.
The issue goes back to 2014 and the deadline for the US to provide full visa waiver reciprocity expired nearly a year ago.
Still, the EU didn’t take immediate action then, and is unlikely to end the visa waiver scheme right now.
That has still caused confusion among travelers with a few cancelations while others are wary about making new bookings.
Acknowledging the ‘longstanding frustration’ over the US stance, it would be a bad move politically and economically for Europe, says US Travel Association CEO Roger Dow.
"At a time of heightened sensitivity around border-security issues, retaliatory threats against US travelers is counterproductive and diverts needed attention away from strengthening our efforts to combat terrorist travel, including moving additional countries closer to inclusion in the visa waiver program."
"It threatens to deprive the European tourism economy and the free flow of travel that supports workers and businesses across the continent. Jeopardizing the economic and security interests that greatly benefit both sides of the Atlantic is simply too great to advance this action."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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