New Zealand’s Tourism Industry Threatened

New Zealand’s tourism industry is feared to suffer losses due to the British government’s decision to increase the Air Passenger Duty (APD) to travelers flying from England to New Zealand from April 2012. T

The British government has decided to increase the APD on passengers traveling to New Zealand from current amount of £85 to £92 after a couple of months in a bid to accumulate more revenue from the aviation department.

This proposed policy has sent shock waves to New Zealand which has close business and cultural ties with the Great Britain. Every year, thousands of English people visit New Zealand, generating huge revenue for the host country’s tourism industry.

It is feared that the additional taxes will cut down the number of tourists and hinder the business related travels as well.

New Zealand’s Prime minister, John Key, is not ready to accept this policy and trying hard to convince the British government not to put extra burden of taxes on the travellers and let the tourism industry of both the nations flourish with the pace they are doing. However, no green signal in this regard is visible yet. The international immigration experts claim that UK will not reverse this policy.

Reportedly, the British air passengers are the most heavily taxed in the world at this moment. In compare with their European counterparts, they have to pay more taxes for travelling to other regions of the world.

If this trend continues, England will get ostracised in the global community, and this is also likely to hamper its own economic progress which is already in doldrums.

Unlike other European states, the Great Britain is covertly pursuing protectionist strategy via such type of tactics, citing national security as the main objective behind it.

The APD is likely to create a rift between England and New Zealand as the latter is hell-bent to oppose its possible implementation.

Tags: Air Travel, England, New Zealand, Tourism