THE?Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is calling on the Ministry of Tourism to review and reduce landing charges and destination fees.
Acting president of the Chamber of Commerce, Tracy Shuffler, said that while she was generally pleased with the 10-point plan for the revitalization of tourism announced by Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy, the issue of landing charges and destination fees had to be addressed.
“I think that the rebate intended for the airport passenger duty (APD) tax in particular is a good first step at making Barbados a more affordable destination but one of the things that we would certainly like to see is to encourage Government to review and reduce landing charges and destination fees generally because they are becoming burdensome to the overall costs of air fares into Barbados.
“When you look at regional travel you can see the effects of it in terms of the cost of air fare, and Barbados is no different. It’s a regional challenge and we need to start looking at it in Barbados as well,” she said.
