Caribbean360: Consideration given to reducing departure taxes

Consideration given to reducing departure taxes
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Chris Hoyos on 20/05/2011 14:47:00
 
BASSETERRE, St Kitts, Friday May 20, 2011 – The Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS) is considering strategic measures to stimulate
intra-regional travel and facilitate easier movement of persons across the
region, including reducing departure taxes.
Chairman of the Council of OECS Ministers for Tourism Richard Skerritt of St.
Kitts and Nevis said the possibility of lowering taxes as an incentive was
discussed at the 10th meeting of the Council this week.
“Ministers actually spoke to matters to do with incentivizing intra-regional
travel, which was a term used, and one of the ways of such incentive is to
reduce the departure tax regime for intra-regional travel,” he said.
“In other words, looking seriously at the possibility of having lower taxes
for intra-regional travel so that we do everything we can to lower the actual
cost of air travel. We are very, very serious about the concern that there has
been a decline in intra-regional travel and the need to do everything we can
collectively to stimulate such travel back up to pre-2008 levels and above.”
This plan is in response to Ministers’ concern over the recent downturn in
intra-Caribbean travel, which has been in the range of 40 – 50 percent. That
has negatively impacted the viability of the indigenous small hotel sub-sector
in the OECS.
Skerrit, who also chairs the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, said there were
several factors which could have influenced the noticeable decline in travel
between Caribbean islands. Those identified by Ministers at the meeting were the
pricing of fares, cost of operations, and capacity.
“We made it clear that we do not believe that you can point a finger at one
airline and say that is the reason why intra-regional travel is down. We may be
able to say that that is a contributor but we felt that it had also to do with
the availability of disposable income for Caribbean people in light of very
difficult economic circumstances, we felt it had partly to do with some very
genuine issues regarding cost, including the cost of fuel and other operating
costs,” he said. “But we also felt that our Caribbean islands have to do a
better job of attracting the interest of Caribbean people to visit their
neighbours.”
On other matters related to travel within the OECS the Ministers agreed to
propose, for the consideration of the OECS Authority, a deadline of December 1,
2011 for facilitation of seamless Intra-Regional Travel for yachts visiting the
OECS single marine space, within the context of the OECS Economic Union.
As a vital step in achieving this objective, Ministers agreed that they would
convene meetings with customs and immigration officials to agree on the adoption
of business-friendly border control arrangements, consistent with the goal of
achieving hassle-free travel. One possible approach is to establish these
arrangements on a bilateral basis, to serve as a platform for the adoption of an
OECS-wide system of seamless travel for yachts.
Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines will next month begin negotiations on
the creation of a Single Yachting Space (SYS) that could be used as a pilot
module for the development of an SYS for the wider OECS.
A proposed Common OECS Tourism Policy was another key discussion area for the
Ministers. The Council welcomed the progress made on the initiative to develop a
Common Tourism Policy for the OECS within the context of the Economic Union.
“For the first time we have charged senior tourism officials in the region
with looking at what are the commonalities across the OECS, while maintaining
the distinguishing features that are peculiar to our individual destinations and
how we can work together without necessarily building a new brand; how can we
work together to be more effective in the market place,” Skerrit said.
“For the first time I am seeing concerted action driven from the Ministers
through the OECS Secretariat  to actually take some key steps forward
The matter of stimulating intra-regional travel is listed as an agenda item for
a possible meeting of OECS Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministers.
Other topics suggested for that proposed meeting include measures geared towards
promoting safe, secure, sustainable and competitive air services into the OECS
region, in keeping with implementation of relevant aspects of the San Juan
Accord. The main focus of that accord, which was signed by Caribbean Aviation
and Tourism Ministers in October 2007, is to create greater efficiency in the
Caribbean aviation industry with a view to improving the region’s
competitiveness and attracting more international carriers.
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