Bahamas Support Elimination of Intra-Caribbean Travel Hurdles

Bahamas Support Elimination of Intra-Caribbean Travel Hurdles

There is “no question” Bahamas tourism would grow in response to an elimination of obstacles to intra-Caribbean travel, said the country’s minister of tourism. In an interview in the Bahamas Tribune, Vincent Vanderpool-Walllace said he "absolutely agrees in principle" with complaints from Josef Forstmayr, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), saying Caribbean governments have failed to curb excessive taxes on hotel operators and implement policies that encourage intra-regional travel.

Earlier this week, Forstmayr said the description of Caribbean hoteliers’ complaints of excessive government taxation as “absolute nonsense” by Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana, reflects a political leadership that has “a narrow and limited perspective on the far-reaching positive effects of tourism on Caribbean economies.”

Jagdeo’s comments also contradict previous Caribbean Community (CARICOM) commitments to support tourism and limit excessive taxation, Forstymayr said. The CHTA head also assailed intra-Caribbean visa restrictions that limit air travel within the region, saying, “It is ludicrous to have visa regimes between CARICOM countries. Our nationals should be able to travel freely from one Caribbean island to another.”

"The central part of it is having one Caribbean airspace that treats the region as one airspace, and allows carriers to operate much more easily with minimum red tape,” said Vanderpool-Wallace. He pointed to the implementation of a single CARICOM travel visa during the Cricket World Cup in 2007, which eliminated intra-island travel restrictions in 10 Caribbean countries for a five-month period, as an example what CARICOM countries can do to ease travel should they choose.