Vancouver tourism officials are warning they stand to lose millions of dollars after the federal government imposed visa requirements on people visiting Canada from Mexico.

Without warning, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the visa changes on Monday in an effort to stop Mexican and Czech nationals from claiming refugee status - and staying in Canada for years while their applications are processed. The new rules came into effect today.

"In addition to creating significant delays and spiraling new costs in our refugee program the sheer volume of these claims is undermining our ability to help people fleeing real persecution," Kenney said in a news release on Monday.

Claims from Mexico have tripled since 2005 and now make up 25 per cent of all refugee claims in Canada.

Effects on tourism

Tour operators in Vancouver, already hit hard by a recession, are scared of losing some of the 89,000 annual Mexican visitors to Vancouver -- almost half of the total Mexican visitors to Canada annually.

"Travel agents are confused -- there's a lot of confusion about how these visas are going to be applied," Tourism Vancouver's Ryan Robutka said.

"I spoke to people, they've got clients coming on Friday and they're not sure what steps to take before they go to Vancouver."

Tourism businesses are urging the government to delay implementing the visa requirement until at least mid-November.

Herman Villareal of the Mexican Business Association of Canada says the sudden visa requirement will mean many canceled meetings and business trips to Vancouver.

"They're not giving us enough lead time," Villareal said. "People who are scheduling to be traveling to Canada in the next week or so will have some problems."

Oscar, a 27-year-old Mexican tourist from Guadalajara, told CTV British Columbia that with high visa prices, a lot of tourists will take their vacations - and their money - elsewhere.

"I think it's not fair," he said. "I don't know what the government wants."

The Mexican government has said it "regrets the decision by the government of Canada."

Visas a 'last resort'

Critics say the government is going too far by requiring visas for both countries.

Immigration lawyer Ravi Jain said a visa is a "blunt instrument" that can strain relations between co-operative nations, like the Czech Republic and NAFTA-member Mexico.

"I think a visa is something that you impose on a country as a measure of last resort," Jain told CTV's Canada AM on Monday morning.

He said that if the government truly wanted to help out legitimate claimants -- and weed out the illegitimate ones -- it should provide more support for them, rather than making it harder for them to enter the country.

"If that was a genuine concern by the government, why didn't they appoint refugee board members and refugee judges when they could have?" Jain asked.

The government could also have targeted immigration consultants who often encourage immigrants to claim refugee status illegitimately, he said.

An outcry from critics

The Czech government is protesting Ottawa's decision by threatening to impose the same restrictions on Canadians and recalling its ambassador to Canada.

Czech Premier Jan Fischer said he would ask the European Union to pressure Canada to drop the visa requirement for visiting Czech citizens. He also said the decision was wrong and one-sided.

Czech nationals were previously required to have visas when visiting Canada prior to 2007.

But Ottawa says too many Czech citizens are seeking asylum when arriving in Canada and the government believes many such claims are unwarranted.

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV British Columbia's Jonathan Woodward