Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced rises in yesterday’s pre-Budget report that will add £15 in tax to a flight to Australia from November 2009 and £45 from November 2010.

• Bands A and B will cover Europe
• Band B will extend 4,000 miles to destinations such as Egypt, Bahrain, the Gambia and the US
• Band C will take in the Caribbean
• Band will cover Australia and New Zealand

The standard rate of APD will rise by £1 to £11 but band B will rise £5 to £45, band C will be £50 and band D £55 from November 2009. These will be followed by further rises in November 2010.

Source: Travel Weekly

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Oberammergau is a small town in Bavaria. For most of the time, it is no different to other towns in the area but once every 10 years for a few summer months, hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the town. Theses visitors come to Oberammergau to witness the Oberammergau Passion Play. This play has been performed by inhabitants of the town since 1634.In 1632 as bubonic plague swept Europe, the town vowed that if God were to spare them from the effects of the plague, they would perform a play every 10 years depicting the life and death of Jesus. Between March and July 1633, the death rate dropped dramatically so believing that God had spared them, they kept their part of the vow and have performed the play ever since although it has since changed so that it is performed when the year ends in ‘0’. The last performance was in 2000 and the next performances will be in the summer of 2010.

The Oberammergau Passion Play involves of 2,000 actors, singers, instrumentalists and technicians, all of whom are residents of the town and the surrounding area to maintain the tradition of the vow their ancestors too over 350 years ago.

The performances in 2010 are expected to attract around 500,000 visitors as the play runs from May to September. Each performance starts at around 2:30pm and lasts until 10:30pm although there is a break for dinner at around 5pm.