UK airline passenger duty review decision credited to effective Caribbean lobby

British Conservative MP Julian Smith

The Caribbean tourism industry may well have been thrown a lifeline by what now appears to be an imminent review of Britain’s controversial Airline Passenger Duty (APD) which came into effect on November 1 last year and has already impacted on ticket costs to the Caribbean.

Indeed, the decision by the British government to freeze the APD at its current level while entertaining a review of the mechanism in response to queries from the region is being hailed as a triumph for ceaseless lobbying by Caribbean governments and regional business interests in the United Kingdom.

It had been stated that the APD would affect travel to the region and further injure a tourist industry already badly affected by reduced demand resulting from the global economic and financial crisis. The crisis had