Grenada Hoteliers Not Happy with Tourism Marketing Levy

The Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association (GHTA) says it is not happy with the government plans to impose a five US dollar levy a night on stayover visitors saying that the matter had never been discussed with stakeholders.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell delivering the EC$933.9 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) budget on Tuesday, said that the levy would be used to help market the country overseas.

“The funds collected from this Levy will be used exclusively for marketing Grenada and will be collected by Government and channeled to the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) for the sole purpose of marketing Grenada,” he said.

But GHTA executive director, Pancy Cross, said her members were not pleased with the measure.

“We are not happy about this and our Board of Directors will be meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the implementations and impact this fee can have on the hotel sector and then we will issue a statement,” Cross said.

She said the GHTA first became aware of the matter when it appeared in a local newspaper, adding “this levy was never discussed with us previously”.

The GTA will from January next year, become the new agency for marketing Grenada’s tourism product, replacing the Grenada Board of Tourism.

Source: caribbean360.com