Tourism Sector Opposes Kerosene Tax

In a newspaper interview published on Monday, the head of the BTW German tourism industry federation, Klaus Läpple, voiced opposition to the Franco-German idea of a kerosene tax for airline companies, saying such a move would destroy jobs and growth in the industry. "A kerosene tax would be a job killer," Läpple told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "Airports and airlines are job machines. Additional burdens would brake them." Furthermore, with Germany being an export economy, a kerosene tax would "burden freight," Läpple continued. "And that would push up the price of goods." In his view, a kerosene tax would only work if "the whole world participated."