Lower taxes key to regional travel

by Marlon Madden

Having slashed taxes on regional travel by 50 per cent and seeing tremendous results, a top tourism official in Antigua and Barbuda is calling on his Caribbean Community (CARICOM) neighbours to follow suit.

Chief Executive Officer of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority Colin James said since the government of that destination took the decision to cut taxes on regional travel by 50 per cent at the end of June, there has definitely been an uptick in visitors to the country from other Caribbean states.

“There has been a strong response,” James told Today’s BUSINESS.

Pointing out that LIAT had resumed flights to “quite a number of destinations” across the region, he said this was buttressed by the return of Caribbean Airlines with a number of connecting flights.

“So we are seeing the uptick in regional travel. We are currently in discussions with Silver Airways to start back service to Puerto Rico. So we are seeing that uptick. I think it is being well received,” he stressed.

“However, what I would love to see is the other governments follow suit to what Antigua and Barbuda has done in looking to reduce the taxes which is needed more than ever before to encourage people to continue to travel in the region and to continue to connect.

We saw in July in particular, a 50 per cent recovery of the rate of travel that we would normally see in the region during that time,” said James. 

“That is remarkable considering that quite a number of countries do still have strong protocols, it is difficult to be tested and sometimes to turn your test around in the particular time for travel that sort of thing, but we are seeing that uptick in travel,” he added.

Following a dramatic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and a near collapse of the tourism industry, CARICOM leaders agreed at their 42nd regular meeting in early July that, among other things, they would consider proposals to reduce taxes on travel for an initial period of six months.

They also agreed to encourage airlines “not to raise fares in such a manner as to negate the market benefit that would be derived from the reduction in travel taxes”. However, so far, Antigua and Barbuda has been the only country to truly reduce taxes on all regional travel, which was done even ahead of the CARICOM meeting.

Meanwhile, Barbados has implemented a similar reduction of 50 per cent, but only on taxes for trips to the Spanish, French and Dutch Caribbean countries, the US Virgin Island, Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.

Director of Tourism at the Jamaica Tourist Board Donovan White was unable to say whether Jamaica was considering the move to slash taxes on regional travel. However, with that destination very close to welcoming its one-millionth visitor for this year, White said there were several key principles that have resulted in this type of rapid increase in visitor arrivals.

Since fully reopening its borders on June 15, 2020, Jamaica welcomed its one millionth visitor by August 15 this year. And between January and August this year, that country welcomed some 829,000 tourists.

He said the gold standard for Jamaica’s tourism product at this time was the “resilient corridor” that was implemented, which allowed for tourists to operate within a “bubble” by using licensed transportation to move between their hotel and other places within the allowed areas.

White, who was unable to say what percentage of visitors to Jamaica were from the Caribbean so far this year, said the protocols also served that destination well because of the constant training of tourism industry workers.

“Over time they have become so comfortable with applying them. The investment that our partners have made in personal protective equipment and hand sanitisation machines, and the level of cleaning that happens in our space is phenomenal,” said White.

“We encourage all our tourism neighbours to apply similar principles and most importantly, to continue to vaccinate your people against COVID-19.  It is the only real solution to returning lives and livelihoods to some level of normalcy,” he said.

White and James were responding to questions from Today’s BUSINESS during a state of the industry press briefing hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation recently.  

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb