Keith Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada, announced the US$5 levy on Tuesday. – File
Grenada has levied a US$5 fee on stopover visitors to fund the country’s tourism marketing budget.
The move has upset the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association (GHTA), which says the matter was not discussed with stakeholders.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell announced the tourism levy while presenting the the EC$933.9 million national budget on Tuesday.
“The funds collected from this levy will be used exclusively for marketing Grenada and will be collected by Government and channelled to the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) for the sole purpose of marketing Grenada,” he said.
GHTA executive director, Pancy Cross, said her members first became aware of the fee from a local newspaper report.
“We are not happy about this and our board of directors will be meetingtomorrow morning (December 12) to discuss the implementations and impact this fee can have on the hotel sector, and then we will issue a statement,” Cross said on Wednesday.
The GTA will from January next year become the marketing agency for Grenada’s tourism product, replacing the Grenada Board of Tourism.
– CMC
