Media Request Form

Publication: Travel Daily
Article: APD delay welcomed but travel industry pushes for further reform
Date: 24 th March 2011
George Osborne has confirmed that the APD rise has been delayed until next year. Delivering his
Budget speech, the chancellor said that he had tried to change the duty to a per plane tax but an
international law had prevented the changes occurring.
He said the government would look into getting the law changed. Travel companies have generally
welcomed the announcement but criticised the government for not addressing distance bands and
ignoring the call for a fairer tax.
“The Chancellor’s decision not to increase APD is a welcome development but does not go far enough,”
said Mike Carrivick, chief executive of BAR UK. Travelsupermarket.com also condemned the speech
for not changing the APD tax bands.
“The anomalies between destinations are unfair and damaging to the tourism industry - we have
already seen this cutting demand to places like the Caribbean,” said Bob Atkinson from the website.
Meanwhile, TUI said it would like to see the government to put the fee towards more green projects and
ABTA said it was keen to see what the money raised would go towards.
Publication: Travel Daily
Article: Brits factor in holidays in future spend
Date: 25 th March 2011
Forty one percent of Britons have told HolidayExtras.com they do not need to save money for next
year’s holiday, suggesting that consumers factor a holiday into their future spend budget.
A study of 1, 674 customers found that 45 percent were saving for this year’s holiday and 10 percent
were already saving for next year’s.
However the 41 percent who seem financially stable will come as good news to the industry as 42
percent of Brits are expected to pay £1,000 or more per person on a summer holiday this year.
Another nine percent were prepared to spend £2,000 each on a holiday, while 24 percent had a budget
of less than £500 each.
Publication: Travel Weekly
Article: Visit USA upbeat despite slight decline in 2010
Date: 25 th March 2011
Visitor numbers from the UK to the US fell 1% to 3.9 million in 2010 but the destination is expecting an
increase this year to take it past the 4 million mark.
The small decline is being regarded as a reasonable result by the Visit USA Association, coming as it
did against a backdrop of the ash cloud, strikes, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and snow disruption.
Speaking at the association's general meeting in London on Thursday, chair Kate Burgess-Craddy said:
"We were looking really good [to achieve growth] until the end of the year, when the snow hit in
December and travel fell sharply."
Issue Date: 30 March 2011
Cellet Travel Services Ltd, 47 High Street, Henley in Arden, Warwickshire, B95 5AA.
Tel: 08456 020574 Fax: 01564 795333 www.cellet.co.uk
44