Departure fee up $30 for visitors

For the second time in two weeks the tourism industry has taken a major hit at the hands of government. Last week it was the announcement of a twenty-eight percent hike in the hotel tax; this week it’s the near doubling of airport departure fees for visitors from abroad. Effective today all foreign nationals departing the P.G.I.A., except those holding permanent residency, will pay a new thirty Belize dollar levy. The charge, called an “airport development fee”, is in addition to the seven dollars and fifty cents visitors pay to PACT. A thirty-dollar passenger service fee and two dollar and fifty cent security-screening fee are paid by both Belizeans and visitors alike. When you add up the various fees, the total paid by tourists comes to a hefty seventy Belize dollars, while Belizeans, for the time being, “get weh” with thirty-two fifty. According to Linsford Rosado, the airport’s manager of finance and administration, the increase in fees was part of the package negotiated in connection with the privatisation of the airport’s management, also effective today. The increased cash flow will enable the facility’s new operators to invest in a longer runway, enlarged apron and terminal, among other improvements. While the higher fees are part of a worldwide trend, particularly following nine-eleven, hotel and tour operators complain that unlike the hotel tax hike, that was announced a year in advance, the new airport charges were imposed suddenly and without input from the tourism industry. One concern expressed by small hotel owners in particular, is that the steady increase in user fees at the airport and popular attractions will have the effect of discouraging budget travellers, long a backbone of destinations like Caye Caulker, Placencia, and Cayo.