Britain’s “exorbitant” Air Passenger Duty is damaging London’s tourism industry and putting people off booking trips to the capital for this summer’s Games, leading industry representatives have warned Olympics Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
With 100 days to go before London 2012 begins, executives including Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce; Anne Godfrey, chief executive of the Guild of Travel Management Companies; and Simon Buck, boss of the British Air Transport Association, wrote in a letter to Hunt: “It is contradictory in the extreme to launch an advertising campaign to encourage inbound tourism ahead of the Olympics just weeks before introducing a double-inflation rise in APD, levied on the very same people we’re trying to attract.”
They said a family of four travelling from Australia or New Zealand would now pay up to £736 in APD to visit the UK.
“It is inconceivable that such a high tax burden won’t impact demand for holidays to the UK.”
