Jamaican Congress Passes Controversial Tourist Tax Hike Bill

Jamaican Congress Passes Controversial Tourist Tax Hike Bill

A controversial bill to increase Jamaica’s tourism enhancement fee passed in the lower house of the country’s parliament this week. The bill, introduced earlier this year by Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s tourism minister, would increase the fee on entering tourists from $10 to $20. The bill will now advance to the upper house of parliament.

Bartlett, quoted in local press reports, said the increased fees “would be dedicated solely to the marketing of Jamaica and airlift support, especially in new and emerging markets.” Bartlett said Jamaica recorded an 8.5 percent increase in land-based and cruise tourist arrivals for the second quarter ending in June, and that the increase was needed to sustain the tourist growth. He said the increase came despite a 3,000-seat reduction in airline capacity from “traditional markets” in the first six months of 2011.

The fee hike is opposed by several Jamaican tourism stakeholders. Last month, Cyriel Kronenburg, an International Air Transport Association (IATA) official, said the increase “will reduce the number of tourists coming to this already uncompetitive region.” In May, Wayne Cummings, JHTA’s president, called the tax hike “excessive,” saying it “will affect travel to the Jamaica” and “sends a wrong signal to the airline market and to consumers.” Cummings also called instituting a fee increase only months after Jamaica successfully lobbied the United Kingdom against hiking its air passenger duty “hypocritical.”