Barbados Considers Vouchers for Tourists to Offset Air Tax

Barbados is considering offering British tourists vouchers to offset the cost of Air Passenger Duty, according to reports in the local newspaper.

The vouchers, designed to overcome the negative effect the tax has had on tourism to the island, will be handed to tourists who book a stay of at least two weeks, tourism minister Richard Sealy told the Caribbean Journal.

It said the voucher scheme formed part of a 10-point plan to boost the island's tourism industry. Sealy said it was one of several voucher ideas that would "draw [results] immediately," along with credits for energy costs for tourism and hospitality-related entities.

He told the online newspaper APD was one of the major concerns highlighted by hotel property owners in the country. In April, the tax rose to £83 per person on an economy-class flight to the Caribbean.

Caribbean high commissioners in the UK are planning a renewed lobby against the tax, which they claim unfairly discriminates against the islands as they fall into a higher tax band than the west coast of the US, which is further from the UK.

Source: Caribbean Journal