London May 29, 2009: Cheapflights.co.uk, an industry partner of ABTA, totally supports the association’s new campaign to raise consumers’ awareness about the cost of the forthcoming November increases in the regressive Air Passenger Duty. This will raise the cost of economy seats to many holiday destinations in developing countries, many of whom depend on tourism as a major element of their GNP.
The November increases will mean that a family of four flying to the Caribbean, South Africa, Kenya or Thailand next winter, will pay £300 in APD, while those families planning trips to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia or Australasia will pay £340 – more than double the current rate of £40 per passenger. Egypt, an increasingly popular destination, will cost the same family of four £240 in APD.
Allegedly an environmental tax on aviation by the UK Government, not only have there been continuous calls from the UK travel industry for the unpopular APD to be dropped, but there is now the threat of legal action against the Government by foreign carriers who are obliged to pay the tax on return flights from the UK.
The Prime Minister was today quoted in a letter to the Wall Street Journal as saying a "vicious circle of falls in exports was leading to falls in production and rising job losses leading to further falls in consumer demand". He added that 100 million more people were in poverty as a result of the crisis.
It is therefore ironic that Mr Brown, who has been a strident advocate of initiatives aimed at ending world poverty, leads a Government that is imposing a tax on travel that not only increases the cost of travel for UK business and exporters, but has a direct and damaging knock-on effect on the very developing countries he claims to want to relieve from poverty.
Speaking early last year Sri Lankan Tourism’s Director for UK & Ireland Sanjika Perera added "Tourism is a significant contributor to our economy. We need to welcome more UK visitors to help sustain the post-tsunami recovery. The tourism industry provides direct and indirect employment to people living in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka. APD does not help to increase visitor numbers. Sri Lanka with its “The Earth Lung Initiative” expects to be a carbon-neutral by 2018 and we would like to see not only fuel efficient aircrafts operating from our airports but also such planes bringing more UK visitors. The UK is a key market for Sri Lanka Tourism and a reduction or an elimination of APD in recognition of initiatives as mentioned above is certainly an additional impetus to promote sustainable tourism.
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