Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has ignored requests from the travel industry to scrap plans to increase Air Passenger Duty (APD) in his recent Budget.

The travel tax is due to increase in November 2009 and again in 2010, but despite pleas from the travel industry, the Chancellor made no mention of changing this in his Budget.

Chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) Mark Tanzer had sent a letter to Darling requesting him to take several travel and tourism issues into account, however, it seems he chose to ignore it.

Tanzer stated, “The holiday tax represents a heavy and growing burden on families at a time when they are being forced to reconsider whether they can afford to take a well earned break.”

John McEwan, chief executive of Advantage Travel Centres was disappointed that Darling had chosen to ignore their requests and felt the Chancellor “has underestimated the impact on tourism jobs and the economy.”

EasyJets communications director felt that the Chancellor had missed the chance to give tourism a boost by refusing to address the issues raised and was also disappointed that he would continue to increase tax on hard working families while cargo planes and private jets remained exempt.

He concluded that “he (the Chancellor) should have waived the planned increases in order to help an industry which will be at the forefront of dragging the economy out of the recession.”

Dermot Blastland, managing director of TUI UK and Ireland, added that he was outraged that the government was insisting on “pursuing an unjust and unfair tax.” He was also deeply concerned that some of the poorer countries that rely on tourism for major income would suffer badly.

Mark Tanzer stated that ABTA would continue to fight the increase in APD.