Airlines are being encouraged to drop fuel surcharges

The Tourism Industry Council in Queensland, Australia is taking notice that Singapore Airlines has dropped its fuel surcharge in several regions.  In response the council is pushing Virgin Blue and Qantas to follow suit and drop their fuel surcharges as well. 

Daniel Gschwind who is a member of the council noted that dropping the fuel surcharge is only a benefit if current services stay the same.  ”A few dollars on top of the airfare up or down makes less difference than routes being cancelled altogether.  Cheaper airfares are always good for consumers and they’re certainly good for the tourism industry,” he said.

Queensland has experienced decreased rates of tourism over the last year and anything that makes traveling to the country more expensive will only hurt the industry more.  The number of Japanese tourists who travel to Queensland is down by 16 per cent.

Gschwind said it “Is a great worry for destinations like the Gold Coast and North Queensland and that trend has unfortunately continued.  There is a lot of effort being made to stem that and to make sure that we can continue to work with the Japanese market, it still is important to Australia, important to Queensland but it certainly hasn’t been the workhorse it has been in the past.   

“Operators have struggled and have worked very hard to offset some of this but the figures now show that it is having an impact on visitor flows to Australia and it will continue to be a challenge for the next six to twelve months I would suggest,” he said.

www.qtic.com.au