Visiting some of the Eastern Caribbean territories will soon become more expensive as several islands have announced plans to increase tourist-related taxes in the coming months.
The government of St. Lucia has revealed plans to introduce a new accommodation fee as of April 1, 2020, where stay-over visitors to the destination will be required to pay US$3.00 on a nightly rate below US$120 and US$6.00 on rates over that amount.
This will apply to all accommodation providers on the island namely hotels, guest houses, villas, and apartments. Guests at accommodation services sourced through sharing platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO will be subject to an accommodation fee of 7% on the full cost of stay.
Antigua and Barbuda has passed a bill in the Lower House of Parliament and following the final approval, will increase its Hotel Accommodation tax by 1 percent.
Tourism authorities in both destinations say the increases will go towards marketing and promotion which will benefit all industry stakeholders.
While attempts to reach federal minister of Tourism Lindsay Grant to inquire if St. Kitts would be looking to implement similar measures have so far been unsuccessful, Minister of Tourism on Nevis, Premier Mark Brantley says he’s not aware of any impending increases for the sector.
He told Freedom FM however that the NIA is looking at other means to improve its tourism related revenue.
“Well I can’t speak for St. Kitts in that regard but on the island of Nevis we’ve been looking very carefully to see how we can increase revenue bearing in mind the continued expenses in particular the environmental impact tourism has and the burden of dealing with that and addressing it.
“As an initial measure what we propose to do in Nevis is to make sure that everybody is paying their fair share of taxes. We recognize there is some abuse particularly in the context of villa owners who continue to rent their villas and pay no taxes because they’re not properly regulated or licensed, so this is a matter we are actively looking at how we can bring them into the tax rubic.
“So we’d like to look at that before we look at increasing any taxes and when I presented the 2020 NIA Budget we did say no new taxes. So we are looking very careful to see how we proceed in the context of bringing everyone into the tax net and ensuring that they pay their fair share.”
Stay-over accommodation in St. Kitts and Nevis presently attracts 22% tax, 10% hotel tax and 12% service fee.