Earlier in the year, during the Budget the Chancellor, George Osborne announced that he would be scrapping the two highest bands of Air Passenger Duty and now he’s gone a step further in the Autumn Statement causing concern to some British holiday companies.
The first part of the cut will come in right in time for the start of the summer holiday season in May 2015, and if you’ve booked an overseas break then you should get a refund on the Air Passenger Duty paid for any children under 12. Then from March 2016, APD will be cut for all under 16s.
With both the first lot of cuts, to the top bands and the children’s tax coming in ready for the holiday season next year, many could take advantage of their first foreign holiday for years, and that could affect the UK holiday industry. After all the trend for staycations was fuelled by the recession and the cost of flying abroad and with a possibility of hundreds of pounds knocked off a foreign break, many might jet off to the sun.
With that said, the massive investment in the UK holiday industry makes it a very appealing place for a break, even if you like in Britain. The entire industry has seen growth with a huge number of different kinds of UK holidays now available, and it could be said, that if we could just invest in the sun and get that to shine a little more, we may have the British holiday thing nailed! Saying that, the holiday companies are really stepping up to the mark, matching any cuts from APD with huge early booking discounts for many parks around the UK!
All the industry can do right now is cross its fingers and hope for a good forecast next year, because it’s the weather more than anything that gets Brits flocking to the coast and elsewhere for British breaks.
By: Kath Cross
