Taxi rate hike too sudden, says BHTA

Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Renee Coppin is disappointed her organisation did not get advance notice of the new taxi fares so that it could advise its local and overseas partners.

While she acknowledged that the BHTA was aware of the rate increase proposal submitted by taxi operators, Coppin said she only learned it had been approved while listening to a press conference on Friday afternoon.

At that media briefing, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw announced that effective Saturday, new rates would go into effect.

Coppin told Barbados TODAY the BHTA was in complete agreement with the operators getting a rate hike as they had not received one in 15 years.

However, she said, the tourism body would have preferred an approach that was not so sudden and, in some cases, drastic.

The BHTA chairman stressed that the higher fares would have implications for other players in the sector.

“We are obviously supportive of the taxi operators being given a fare increase. It’s something that we were aware was on the cards and, certainly, nobody can deny that with the increases in costs to the taxis over time, it is justified.

“Our concern is that this is something that we have flagged for some time that would need to be planned for, communicated and negotiated. It does not just impact the rates at the airport when visitors arrive; these rates impact our members who have contracts in place for transportation – seaport, airport, tours and hotel transfers which are included in holiday packages and are sold overseas by tour operators and travel agents,” Coppin said in a telephone interview.

“It had been on the cards for some time and we have been asking consistently what the new rates were going to be.”

While Bradshaw said the new rates would be revealed on Saturday, Coppin said they had already been posted at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

“In some areas, I find that the hikes are higher than expected but I have not had a chance to do a proper analysis. The feedback so far from members has been one of concern. In addition to the persons and businesses I have mentioned, there are hotels who have built the old rates into packages and visitors who are also working with budgets based on old rates. The suddenness of the change is definitely not ideal. The quantum of the change might be less of a concern if it were more phased,” Coppin said when asked her opinion of the rate increases.

The prices of some trips have more than doubled under the new rate system.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb