Caribbean Region, CTO Critical of New Air Passenger Duty Uptick

Air passenger duty (APD) has gone up by eight percent, hitting passengers in the pocket just in time for the Easter holidays. The rise – first announced in the Government’s autumn statement last year – means that a family of four travelling to Florida will have to pay a total of £260 in departure tax, while a family of four flying to Australia will now pay £368.

British Air Transport Association chief executive Simon Buck slammed the move as a “tax on tourism”.

Last week United Kingdom officials confirmed that the APD would increase by eight percent on April 1 despite attempts regionally to get London to change its mind. The travel tax will move from 75 to 81 pounds sterling or just about EC $365.

The Antigua Hotel & Tourist Association (AHTA) has decried the impact of an increase in Britain’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) that took effect on Sunday, saying the tax is another harsh blow to the already challenged sector.

AHTA General Manager Neil Forrester told OBSERVER Media that there has been a sharp decline in visitor arrivals from the UK and in the last five years alone “we’ve seen a decline of more than 30,000 visitors from the UK.”

He said the entire regional had been affected not only by the economic down turn in Britain but by the APD, “which we think is bias towards the Caribbean.” We are paying a larger amount than many of our competing destinations,” Forrester said.

A number of leading international airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic argue that the increases would mean that a family of four flying from the UK to the Caribbean would have to pay close or just over $625 in taxes. In 2005 such a family would have paid just over $125.

“The will increase the cost of vacationing in Antigua. It wasn’t what we had expected and it wasn’t what we had hoped for and the UK just seems to be intent on taxing air travel. We are very disappointed with what is happening in that market,” the AHTA general manager said.

The Caribbean Tourism Association (CTO) agrees that the APD has resulted in a decrease in visitor arrivals from the UK. The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association estimates that the number of UK visitors to the region fell from 1.7 million in 2007 to 1.1 million in 2010. The APD was instituted in 1994 as an environmental tax aimed at offsetting the aviation industry’s carbon footprint.