MONTEGO BAY, St James -- Alec Sanguinetti, the director general and chief executive officer of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association (CHTA), says tourism has become the bullseye for taxation throughout the region -- a practice that he said is negatively impacting intra-Caribbean travel.

According to Sanguinetti, the heavy taxation on the sector affects mainly land-based tourism, which creates an uneven playing field between stopover visitors and cruise-ship travellers.

Citing an example, Sanguinetti said someone travelling on a seven-day cruise from Barbados with stops in St Lucia, Antigua, St Vincent, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, Dominica and back to Barbados, is only required to pay only US$55 in taxes.

However, if that person travels to the same destinations by air, they would be required to pay a grand total of US$332 in taxes and other government fees.

"That would be a massive US$332 per person in taxes and addons, to get the same itinerary travelling by air, and you haven't spoken about airfare yet or hotels," Sanguinetti told delegates at Jamaica's third Tourism Outlook Seminar now on at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay.

"You are taken to the cleaners; it is as if they are saying to you don't come, you are not welcome, but if you come by ship you are most welcome," he added.

He said the recommendations for moving forward should include removing barriers, such as taxation and visa requirements, which impede intra-regional travel.

Secondly, Sanguinetti said there is need to implement the San Juan Accord of 2007 which is intended to, among other things, rationalise air transportation, especially in terms of the One Sky Policy.

"If you fly from Jamaica to Trinidad non-stop you go through about five air traffic control zones in the Caribbean and you pay each zone as you pass through," he explained, adding that on the other hand cruise ships pay nothing.

He noted that the San Juan Accord was drafted to address some of these challenges, but unfortunately is yet to be implemented. Among the recommendations set out in the three-page action plan, he said, is one that would make the aviation industry more competitive and attract investors.

"It calls for all actions to be completed by September 2008. But this is 2010 and the San Juan Accord rests somewhere in someone's office on a shelf," he charged, adding that the Caribbean tourism markets remain stagnant because of the lack of airline seats.

The five-day tourism conference ends tomorrow.

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