Taxing long-haul flights isn't the answer to NZ's tourism woes
17 Mar, 2021 02:37 AM
4 minutes to read
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OPINION:
International tourism has clearly been hit hard by Covid-19. But despite the desperation of the travel and airline industries, people are already questioning whether it should ever return to pre-pandemic levels.
One who thinks not is Air New Zealand's chief environmental adviser, Sir Jonathon Porritt. Increasing the price of long-haul flights to pay for greenhouse gas emissions, he said recently, would help end "thoughtless, heedless" tourism.
Porritt was responding to the latest report from Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton. Titled "Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism", one of its four main recommendations was for the introduction of a departure tax to offset the carbon emissions from international air travel.