British Travel Trade Fair 2007
UK consumers will find ways to avoid new green air taxes that will only punish inbound visitors, VisitBritain chief executive Tom Wright has warned.
Speaking during a Tourism Society question time at BTTF, he said, with the strong pound and a tourism deficit of around £18 billion annually, a further increase in air taxes could put off foreign tourists from visiting the UK.
And he said he did not believe additional taxation would deter UK citizens from travelling, adding: “If you just tax the British they’ll find ways to travel, they’ll get on a Eurostar to Paris and fly from there.”
Liberal Democrat tourism spokesman Richard Younger-Ross agreed that targeting passengers, like the recent increase in Air Passenger Duty did, was misguided because it is the airlines who need to change their policies.
He said: “There are too many empty flights, not too many passengers. We need to push airlines into filling all the seats and we would do that by proposing a tax on flights rather than passengers.
“If any of those taxes reduce the number of people flying, that would be of benefit to the UK as it would also encourage people to visit UK holiday destinations.”
- More from the British Travel Trade Fair
- TW Blog:Tories unveil air tax plans; no thanks, say airlines
- TW Blog:Air travel for all?