St. Lucia's Tourism Minister
Allan Chastanet has cautioned that the new per plane tax which the UK coalition
government says will replace the Air Passenger Duty could harm the region's
tourism industry.
Mr. Chastanet's warning comes in the face of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic criticising the new plane tax as unworkable and harmful to Britain's travel industry.
Analysts have also signalled that airlines which regularly fail to fill planes to certain routes may simply stop servicing those destinations.
"Obviously we would not want to see any tax that would jeopardize the airline industry but we are excited that it is going to be an equitable tax, if there is a tax. The UK is a big market for us, we have invested a lot of money in the UK market, British Airways has gone from a half a flight a week to five flights a week so any tax right now given the recession would reduce demands which would then convert to hotel stays which converts into jobs for this country," Mr. Chastanet said.
Mr. Chastanet's warning comes in the face of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic criticising the new plane tax as unworkable and harmful to Britain's travel industry.
Analysts have also signalled that airlines which regularly fail to fill planes to certain routes may simply stop servicing those destinations.
"Obviously we would not want to see any tax that would jeopardize the airline industry but we are excited that it is going to be an equitable tax, if there is a tax. The UK is a big market for us, we have invested a lot of money in the UK market, British Airways has gone from a half a flight a week to five flights a week so any tax right now given the recession would reduce demands which would then convert to hotel stays which converts into jobs for this country," Mr. Chastanet said.
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