Tourists visiting America will now be required to pay $14 to enter the country. The fee, which starts today, is to fund the promotion of the United States as a tourist destination.

Critics of the fee have argued that charging tourists to promote tourism does not make sense.

“It’s like inviting a friend over for dinner and then charging them a fee at the door,” said Steve Lott, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines around the world. IATA openly opposed the fee to members of Congress before it was decided upon in the Travel Promotion Act, which was passed in March.

“If the idea is to make the United States more welcoming and to increase tourism, raising the entry fee seems to be counterintuitive to what you’re trying to do,” Lott said, suggesting that an effort be made to simplify the complicated entry process into America instead.

The legislation from Congress that created the fee also created the non-profit public/private Corporation for Travel Promotion that will be funded in part by $10 of the $14 fee collected from visitors. This move followed figures from the Department of Commerce, which showed that the United States welcomed 633,000 fewer overseas visitors in 2008 than in 2000, despite strong global growth in long-haul international travel during that period.