Air Passenger Duty Receives Criticism from 100 Countries

It now seems that tourism ministers from more than 100 countries have already strongly criticized the new increase to the Air Passenger Duty, which has just recently been imposed by the UK government this month. The travel tax, which was raised on November 1^st, is due to rise again in one year’s time.

At a recent meeting, which was held at the annual World Travel Market, no UK government representative was on hand to defend its decision to recalculate and raise the tax. It also seems that Britain has withdrawn its membership with the UN World Tourism Organization.

The secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organization, Taleb Rifai, has called for the UK government to rethink its tax. He said that the Air Passenger Duty tax is not an environmental measure. It is simply an anti-development measure. The British government says it is committed to promoting development in poorer countries, yet it has introduced a tax that is a terrible blow to the development of these countries.

Taleb Rifai went on to say that the Air Passenger Duty will, not only hurt the poorer countries, but it will hurt all of the UK’s tour operators as well. He noted that the Dutch introduced a similar tax, but quickly retracted it. Thailand has dropped 50 percent of its airport fees, and even Egypt is considering similar measures.

Mr Rifai went on to say that this new increase of the Air Passenger Duty tax could lead to more unemployment for the UK. A petition for the Air Passenger Duty tax to be abolished has already been launched by different sites.