The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has urged US border agencies to take a ‘balanced approach’ to ESTA changes, warning tougher requirements could undermine US competitiveness and disrupt high-value travel.
The proposed reforms would require travellers to provide multiple years of personal data, including social media accounts, phone numbers, email addresses and expanded family information, with the possibility of biometric submissions.
Consultation on the US Customs and Border Protection plan ends this week and could be introduced in the next few months, affecting visa waiver countries such as New Zealand.
The GBTA warned at the weekend that these measures would significantly increase administrative workloads for corporate travel teams and raise the risk of errors or delays during approval processes.
The social media field in the ESTA application has been an optional question.
. . . Growing Burden
Washington DC-based GBTA rep resents a USD1.57 trillion global business travel and meetings sector.
It says that overly burdensome requirements could create compliance conflicts with international privacy laws and raise costs for companies sending staff to the US. The group is calling for security measures that protect borders without deterring legitimate travel.
“Security and efficient business travel are not mutually exclusive. While GBTA strongly supports efforts to protect US borders and enhance traveller security, the proposed changes pose significant risks and could undermine the benefits that business travel brings,’’ says Suzanne Neufang, ceo of GBTA.
A poll of 571 travel professionals across 40 countries early this year found that 78% of respondents whose organisations regularly send employees to the US were either very or somewhat concerned about the proposed ESTA changes.
Overall travel to the US by Kiwis fell by 6.7% for the 12 months to last Nov, mirroring figures which show trips to America are already down from other countries, too.
