Caribbean hotels in Saint Kitts get tax break
Travellers can expect to find some excellent Caribbean deals on hotels in Saint Kitts as the island governors have decided to reduce import duties to boost tourism.
The island is famous for the Brimstone Hill Fortress, the largest citadel ever built in the Eastern Caribbean.
Brimstone Hill Fortress in now a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, an ideal location for tourists to take in stunning scenery and culture.
With the sustained troubles of the global economic crisis, small hotels on the island have suffered from a drop in bookings. The announcement today to lower import duties will give the small and medium businesses a welcome respite from the slump in interest.
Tourism Minister Richard Skerritt was hopeful that this new scheme would rejuvenate some of the flagging hotels but also help them to raise standards across the island.
“Part of the scheme is that hotels have to comply with certain regulations as we seek to improve the quality and sustainability of bed stock,” Mr Skerritt explained to TravelMole.com.
The tax break in import duty should allow the hoteliers to purchase essential items at a much cheaper rate. This will allow price reductions to be passed on to the consumer, with bargain holidays to be found for the cash-strapped holidaymaker.
Minister Skerritt was adamant that the proposed scheme was not a free-for-all: “We are not interested in helping poor service and poor standard hotels survive. We need to improve if we are to establish a high value tourism product that can be sustained in the future.”
A lot of the success of the new scheme will rest with English cricket fans. Since hosting the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Saint Kitts has derived a lot of its revenue from the sport.
Saint Kitts has managed to persuade the England team to take direct flights to Saint Kitts and bypass Barbados, where many British tourists take their Caribbean holidays.
Speaking about the forthcoming game with England, Mr Skerritt said: “The recent change in captaincy has led to increased media focus on the team and we are anticipating even greater coverage that we had hoped for.”
The increased media attention will provide some welcome free advertising for the island, which should help increase future bookings for summer holidays.
Hotels News posted by Lily Townsend on 26 January 2009
St Kitts, Caribbean holiday, tax break, import duty
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