What is the view of Dutch political parties on the travel industry? That is the question that occurred to ANVR as we approach the early elections to the House of Representatives on Nov. 22. Chris Knaap, just new to ANVR, went to work. Using the latest Peilingwijzer (26-10-2023), he made a concise summary of the positions of most Dutch parties. This shows that the focus is almost entirely on emissions and nuisances from the (aviation) sector, and less on the trips themselves. Tourism is not a separate issue in many election programs where plans are made. The travel sector specifically is not mentioned. There are some parties that do mention that tourism and recreation are valuable and should be given a place within the Dutch government. These are the VVD, CDA and D66. Of course, every election program pays close attention to sustainability and aviation. Actually all parties on the left and center flank advocate freezing or shrinking the number of flight movements. Here, leftists and progressives in particular advocate (sharp) shrinkage. The lowest number of flight movements is named by CU, which is 300,000. Right-wing and liberal parties indicate that Schiphol may grow if it can do so more quietly and cleanly. NSC and BBB advocate maintaining or “freezing” the current number of flight movements. A number of parties understand that aviation needs help with its sustainability challenge. VVD, D66, VOLT, CU, CDA, FvD and JA21 say they want to help the industry innovate and develop sustainable fuel options. Common examples include synthetic kerosene, electric flying, hydrogen and SAF. At the same time, all leftists and progressives want to ban fossil advertisements. CU wants to “limit” this. Also, almost all parties except VVD, PVV, FvD and JA21 want Lelystad Airport not to open. Finally, most parties want flying to be taxed. They want this in different ways. A distance-based ticket tax, excise taxes on kerosene and VAT on airline tickets are common examples. Specifically, left-wing parties want to start taxing frequent flyers extra through a “progressive ticket tax. Many election programs pay attention to international train and bus travel in addition to focusing on national public transportation. Most parties want a European (high-speed) train network to be built. In addition, most parties believe that train tickets should be able to be booked in a central system at the European level. These should then become alternatives to short-haul flights (often 750 kilometers is mentioned). The parties’ positions on tourism and the travel industry can be found on the ANVR website.
This week’s TravMagazine #45 features a handy chart of party positions that the ANVR has prepared. (Photo Shutterstock).
