Hotel tax to be raised in 2005

It will not be implemented until April 2005, but the decision has been made to raise the hotel tax from seven percent to nine percent. The move by the Belize Tourism Board was announced by the Belize Tourism Industry Association in its weekly bulletin. According to the B.T.I.A., the news came in the form of a letter from Director of Tourism Tracy Taegar on March sixteenth. It was pointed out that the hotel tax has not been raised since 1993 and that in view of government’s budgeting constraints it is unlikely that Belmopan will be able to provide its customary subvention to support marketing, training, and product development. While that may be true, the rapid growth in overnight tourist arrivals combined with rising room rates and more efficient collection efforts would have resulted in multi million dollar annual increases in hotel tax revenues, even without the twenty-eight percent tax hike. While the industry is obviously not thrilled with the new levy, hoteliers are at least thankful that the long lead time will allow them to incorporate the new costs into their marketing campaigns for next year.