With mounting pressure coming from all around, many of the Caribbean islands have again turned to the safer tourism industry, trying to see how much they might be able to squeeze out this way.
Recently, even tourism has come under fire and in this particular instance it is England that has chosen to start applying what has been described as ridiculously high tax payments in regards to Air Passenger Duty (APD) in flights out of the United Kingdom (UK).
If this Air Passenger Duty is instituted it would cause countless hardships on many Caribbean countries that know the European market is the most profitable as far as tourism is concerned. It is likely that several small island tourism industries will take an incredible hit from this move by the UK. Also the region’s tourism sector will be at a competitive disadvantage to other destinations which were further away but in a band that charged less duty.
In addition, the Band C tax, the area in which the Caribbean falls, is to increase by 50 per cent next year, whereas Band B would increase by 33 per cent.
The fact of the matter is that with the Caribbean having so many financial rugs being pulled from under their feet it can least afford to not take a firm stand against what the United Kingdom has proposed.
It often said that tourism is everybody’s business and at no time does that ring more true that the present. The Caribbean simply cannot afford to have this happen.
