The Impact Of Air Passenger Duty And Possible Alternatives For The Caribbean

“Heads of Government noted with concern the potentially negative implications for the regional tourism industry of the Air Passenger Duty (APD)/Per Plane Duty (PPD) ‐ proposed by the Government of the United Kingdom. Given that Tourism was the mainstay of many of our economies, they also considered the implications for the inhibitive impact on travel by the Caribbean Diaspora from that part of the world”.
In September 2010 six Caribbean Tourism Ministers met in London with British Ministers, officials, MPs and industry representatives to make clear their concerns about the damaging effect that Air Passenger Duty (APD) was having on the Caribbean tourism economy and the Caribbean community in the UK. The visit was organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), the regional tourism development agency comprising of 33 Governments and a variety of private sector entities.
In these meetings the British Government requested a concise review of the relationship between aviation taxation and Caribbean visitor arrivals, with a specific focus on the value of tourism to the Caribbean, the projected impact of increases in the cost of flights as a result of taxation and evidence about the impact of APD on the Caribbean community in the UK.