You cannot simply dismiss the more than doubling of yet another tax by stating that our ‘service charge is the lowest in the region’, even if that statement was true.

Intra Caribbean travel is a vital source of business to Barbados and represents the third largest market. It is especially important to our small hotel sector which suffers one of the lowest average annual occupancy rates within the region.

Driving summer business is a vital key to the survival and upgrading environment of our hotel sector and this huge price hike to act as a severe deterrent to encouraging more Caribbean residents to holiday within in the region instead of flying off to Miami or New York.

With already sky-high airfares linking the comparatively short distances between Caribbean islands, those contemplating a long weekend to St Martin, Martinique or St Lucia will now be faced with being forced to pay over BDS$100 (US$50) in airport departures alone.

In many cases more than what many of our small hotels are obtaining as a nightly average room rate.

Governments must learn that there are only so many ways you can extract taxes. If the taxes are so high as to act as a reason not to travel to a destination, which is already perceived as expensive, then there will be no overall benefit to the national economy.

Adrian Loveridge
Barbados