A top level delegation from the Caribbean is flying to London to lobby for changes to the air passenger duty.
Six Caribbean ministers of tourism and the chief executive of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation will meet with travel industry and parliamentary bodies over three days from September 6.
ABTA and the British Air Transport Association will be included in the talks, together with the Caribbean Council, Caribbean Diaspora representatives and the British Caribbean All Party Parliamentary Group.
The Caribbean delegation will be lobbying for an alternative to the current APD system, which currently taxes flights from Britain to the Caribbean more heavily than travel to Hawaii, and is set to rise for the second time in a year within the next two months.
In November 2008 APD was re-worked into a four-tier band system, categorising destinations according to the distance between London and their national capital. From November 1, APD on flights to the Caribbean will have risen by up to 94 per cent over two years.
The ministers will be lobbying for their region, officially the most tourism-dependent in the world, to be moved into the same band as the USA and Bermuda, or for the APD system to be replaced with a fairer structure.
CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation Hugh Riley said: “We feel that the size of the delegation coming to the UK underscores the importance that the Caribbean attaches to this issue and the seriousness of our intent to minimise the possible damage that this second set of price increases will bring about.
“The rises come at time when a second British recession is being forecast and the Caribbean governments and people feel that it is paramount that we discuss the issue with every responsible body in order to find a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible."
The list of ministers visiting London are:
Chairman of the CTO, John Maginley
Minister of tourism, Barbados, Richard Sealy
Minister of tourism and civil aviation, Grenada, Glynis Roberts
Minister of Tourism, Jamaica, Edmund Bartlett
Minister of tourism and international transport, St Kitts and Nevis, Richard Skerritt
Minister for tourism and civil aviation, Saint Lucia Allen Chastanet
By Linsey
