GREEN TAXES

The party conference season has seen all of the main parties dipping their toe in the water again in regard of green taxes. One of the obvious targets is air travel and the industry is in disarray about a collective position with some, including a low cost carrier, advocating new environmental linked taxes for aircraft. Uncertainty In any industry is a poor recipe for success and one as fickle as tourism suffers even more because it is not 'essential'.

The term 'green tax' is really a misnomer. Just like road taxes are not spent on roads and national insurance is not spent on health anything with a green tax label will not be spent on green issues. In the UK we operate a general taxation system so all taxes go to the general exchequer and their use is determined through what is known as the spending round. At that time all Departments of State fight for their share of the cake. All parties are committed to major expenditure on health and education so environment is one of the Departments that pick up the crumbs.

All that new green taxes will do is to add money to the exchequer and nothing for either climate change or other environmental concerns. That is of course unless such taxes were really swingeing and stopped people behaving as they do now. Regressive taxes such as fuel escalator duty on petrol have made little difference to the volume of traffic so a few pounds on a flight will be absorbed after the initial moans. Don't believe me; just look at the general public apathy to the last APD hike!   Airports are still bursting at the seams.

Instead of being like turkeys which vote for Christmas and inviting Government to put green taxes on the industry there is of course another solution for companies to pursue. That is to work towards policies that mean that green taxes are not necessary. Why invite the Government to decide how to spend our hard earned money when we should be mature enough to develop our own environmental objectives?

The current industry focus is on climate change and carbon offsetting and these are important and hopefully, within a short period of time, every airline, tour operator, travel agent and industry association will have their own programmes. But climate change is not the only issue for the tourism industry or indeed the consumer. It is one of the consequences of the way in which we live and manage our finite resources. It is a part of a much bigger sustainable development agenda and it is on this agenda that the industry should concentrate.    Green taxes are a short term irrelevance in this wider need for action.

Dick Sisman
TICOS founder
2 October 2007