TORTOLA, BVI – The leaders of the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have endorsed a recommendation by tourism ministers for a levy to be applied to airline tickets purchased for travel within the sub-region. The decision is contained in a communiqué issued following the just concluded 49th meeting of the OECS Authority here.
The leaders agreed to apply a levy on each airline ticket purchased for travel within the OECS, as part of a wider Caribbean initiative to set up a Caribbean Tourism Marketing Fund. The fund is to be administered jointly by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.
The Meeting also endorsed the Ministers’ mandate to the St. Lucia based OECS Secretariat to assist with drafting model legislation to facilitate the introduction of the ticket levy.
The OECS also plans to examine the implications of a proposal to establish an OECS Tourism Authority to coordinate and manage common action on tourism issues, including marketing, looking in particular at the structure and function of the proposed Authority.
In this regard, the OECS Secretariat is to prepare an economic impact paper jointly with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and in collaboration with national tourism stakeholders, which would set out the critical issues for the tourism sector for national and regional consideration.
The meeting also expressed concern over the stated intention of the Government of the Unite Kingdom to impose a carbon emission tax on airline passengers from that country destined for the region as of November 2009.
It was noted that this has serious consequences for a tourism sector already affected by the economic downturn.
The Heads agreed that continuing strong representation should be made to the United Kingdom government on this matter with a view to averting the negative outcomes of its introduction.
The OECS groups together Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. CMC News Services