Proposed air tax threatens region's tourism

As if recessionary economies weren't enough to put a damper on the region's tourism product, Britain´s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister), Alistair Darling, is proposing a tax based on the length of their journey and their class of travel.

This, laments David Jessop, head of the UK-based Caribbean Council, will significantly increase the Air Passenger Duty on all travelers buying an airline ticket in the UK to travel to the Caribbean and elsewhere.

The tax announced by Darling will increase progressively over the next two years, when it will be joined in 2010 by a European scheme that seeks to include aviation into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme involving the purchase of licences for all air transport operators to emit carbon.

The measure is part of the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement, which Caribbean Prime Ministers signed in September.

Jessop has been among the outspoken voices against the economic arrangement.

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