Each person booking one of the packages will be given a £150 (US$283) subsidy and according to a senior BTA official stated ‘an estimated 15,000 people were expected to buy the package before 15 December’.

So that equates to a taxpayer subsidy of US$4.2 million.

The justification is that ‘they get out in the pubs and restaurants and obviously that is feeding a lot of money into the industry’.

But hang-on a minute, included in the package are daily complimentary breakfasts, a dinner at Oistins and a 5O per cent discount off a number of our attractions and services.

What’s left?

Dinner on 6 nights of their stay, lunch each day maybe and a bit of shopping.

15,000 people staying an average 7 days and two persons sharing one room gives a total of 52,500 occupied hotel room nights.

If you average a tour operator net rate of US$100 per night per room that would give Government US$393,750 revenue in VAT.

Another US$187,500 would be collected in departure taxes.

That still leaves a staggering US$3.62 million deficit between taxes collected and subsidy given.

Assuming everything that the 15,000 extra visitor’s purchase, being generated by the Best of Barbados programme is VAT rated at 15%, they would each have to spend US$1,600 over the one week stay or US$228.50 each daily to re-coup the marketing subsidy.

A considerably higher per capita spend than our guests who book normal priced holidays.

Doesn’t anyone sit down and calculate whether such expenditure is likely to be cost-effective?

Adrian Loveridge