The Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) is calling on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to bring to British Prime Minister David Cameron's attention their concern on the U.K. government's plan to increase passenger duty on British travelers by April.

TTF Chief Executive John Lee made the call Wednesday saying the 8 percent increase in the Air Passenger Duty (APD) announced by the U.K. Treasury will discourage Britons from visiting Australia.

"The Air Passenger Duty (APD) is a discriminatory, arbitrary tax which impedes tourism, travel, trade and economic growth. This will be the fourth APD rise since 2007 and now takes the tax paid by an ordinary British traveller to more than A$140," said Lee.

"It unfairly penalises British residents wishing to visit long-haul destinations like Australia and New Zealand, as well as impacting visitors to Britain from long-haul source markets. It's a tax on tourism which reaps billions of pounds in revenue for the British government masquerading as environmental policy."

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA), which also wants its government to make the same appeal to Cameron, echoed the position of TTF.

"The UK already has the highest departure tax in the world and this latest rise means a family of four will pay more than NZ$736 in taxes just to leave the country," said TIA CEO Tim Cossar in a joint statement of TTF and TIA.Cossar said, "It will simply price more potential visitors to Australia and New Zealand out of the market. Poor economic conditions in Europe are already affecting consumer confidence and reducing the likelihood of people to take a long-haul holiday, so now is not the time to introduce another barrier."

Cossar said the number of passengers passing though U.K. airports fell 7.4 million in 2010 and the APD increase is likely to exacerbate that decline.

"Both TIA and TTF are concerned at the potential impact of this increase on British arrivals in our two countries and we believe this issue deserves attention at the highest level," he said.

Since 2009, the APD has been split into four distance bands, with both Australia and New Zealand falling into the highest band, for destinations over 9,650 kilometres (6,000 miles) from London. On Dec. 6, 2011, the U.K. Treasury announced Band D would rise in April 2012 from £85 for each economy class passenger to £92 and from £170 for premium class passengers to £184. The new rate equates to £368 (A$560/NZ$736) for a family of four travelling to Australia or New Zealand.

The increase is the fourth since 2007 and represents a five-fold increase.

Tourism and Transport Forum opposes the new increase in British passenger duty.