On the few occasions that I have met Alec Sanguinetti, the chief executive officer and director general of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), I have always found him to be passionate and well able to articulate the concerns many of us in the industry have.
But I wonder if sometimes he looks in the mirror and just thinks, am I shouting into the wind?
At the Tourism and Investment Conference held in Montego Bay earlier this year, he was quoted as saying: “Governments in the region have practically killed the tourism industry.”
He added: “We have repeatedly said that government must not kill the golden goose, but the goose is already half dead. There is not much more to kill. We [in the industry] have become the bullseye for taxation by governments.”
I really don’t think he could have expressed it any better, but hardly before we forget these powerful words, CHTA member countries up and down the region are almost having a competition to dream up and implement a new tax negatively impacting tourism.
Even if it is not a new tax, existing ones are being hiked, in some cases doubled, and have the same deterrent effect.
Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts and St Lucia are among the most recent.
This week’s Tourism Matters comes from Britain’s most easterly inhabited island, Mersea, off the Essex coast. It is where my first British tour operation was based some 35 years ago.
In those near four decades, previously unheard of destinations have emerged vying for a market that some in the Caribbean thought was ours by right.
It would, in my opinion, be a very useful exercise for public sector people directing our tourism industry to visit a couple of High Street travel agents in England and see the bewildering choice of holidays.
Price and perceived value for money becomes even more critical in final destination choice during a recession and with all the various increases in tax, operational cost and the dreaded Advance Passenger Duty, we are not winning the war with our competition.
While we keep piling on the costs of doing business, other destinations are turning to more creative ways to maintain employment and tourism industry sector viability. Ireland, for instance, reduced its VAT rate on tourism-related goods and services, including accommodation, from July this year, initially on a trial period up until December 2013.
Down from 13.5 per cent to nine per cent. It also plans to eliminate the €3 (BDS$8.27) travel tax. Airlines like Ryanair have already pledged to refund it to passengers where it has already been paid.
Ordinarily, my wife and I would try to take a couple of short breaks each year within the Caribbean.
With London’s third airport, Stansted, close to where I am staying and being able to purchase a return flight to Dublin for £20 (BDS$63.39) – or less than the Barbados departure tax – guess where we are heading! Incredible scenery kept in pristine condition, some of the most welcoming people on the planet – who could blame me?
