air Passenger Duty (aPD) should be scrapped in favour of a tax on hotel stays, the chief executive of Ryanair has suggested. Michael O'Leary said a ?1 per night tax on rooms could recoup a significant proportion of what is now raised by aPD, while cutting costs for British holidaymakers and encouraging more foreign travellers to visit Britain.  "Visitor numbers to Britain have fallen from 33million to 29.5million since 2007," Mr O'Leary said, in an interview with Telegraph Travel. "That represents around ?2billion in lost revenue each year, going by Visit Britain's own statistics, or roughly equivalent to what aPD brings in.  "I understand that the Government needs to raise tax, and aPD has nothing to do with emissions - it's just a tax grab. a more sensible way of raising money would be a tax on hotel rooms. There are far more hotel beds than plane seats, and it would raise money from domestic and business travellers, too. No one will notice ?1 on top of their hotel room, but ?12 or more on top of a plane ticket is putting off travellers."  Hotel occupancy taxes are imposed by authorities in the United States, but would be resisted by hoteliers here. "any additional taxes on accommodation would be unnecessary and ill-timed," said Simon Vincent, who manages Hilton hotels in Europe.  "The UK hotel industry is subject to the second-highest rate of VaT in the EU, and we face strong competition from our European counterparts with their lower rates of VaT. This is a time when we should be supporting our tourism industry and providing more compelling reasons for people to visit rather than suggesting additional taxes," Mr Vincent added.  The Government is due to conclude its consultation on the future of aviation tax on June 17. among the options it is considering are an increase in aPD on shorthaul flights - in order to fund a reduction on tax on longer journeys; the extension of the tax to cover private jets; and the scrapping of the controversial banding system used to calculate aPD payments.  Passengers currently pay between ?12 and ?24 on all short-haul flights from Britain, and between ?60 and ?170 on all medium-haul and long-haul journeys. Under the banding system - based on the distance from London to the capital city of the destination - anyone flying from Britain to Hawaii will contribute less than someone visiting Barbados, even though Hawaii is 3,000 miles farther away.  Last month Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet, claimed that any changes to aPD in favour of long-haul travellers would see Britain's annual GDP fall by ?2.6billion, force 77,000 people out of work and result in a large rise in CO2 emissions.  However, Julie Southern, chief commercia