Tourism over taxed says regional hotel boss

(Jamaican Observer): Director General of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Alec Sanguinetti, Wednesday said that the industry is having its worst period in its history due to the ongoing global financial crisis and government taxation policies. "The industry, I would say, is threatened and unfortunately because of the contracting of Government revenues because of the downturn in tourism, (and) tourism has become the bullseye for taxation," Sanguinetti told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). He said that while some regional countries have given "some relief" to the industry "we need to do a lot more than that".

Sanguinetti said that, "We have seen an increase in taxes on room nights, we have seen an increase on air tickets, we now have one or two governments who are looking at putting taxes on service charges. We need to get some relief."

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