Trying to conduct a debate through the media on an issue of technical complexity is not wise. The recent brief public spat between the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo, on whether the problems faced by tourism were caused by the taxes imposed by regional governments or by the industry’s charging policies and cost structures, was striking for the absence of fact.
This is largely because academia, government and the industry have still not embarked on the detailed research necessary to measure the full economic impact of the region’s most important, if sometimes unsteady, industry. As a consequence no one can say with any certainty what the effect of prices and taxes is on travel, how great the level of elasticity in demand might be, or for instance, how the regional industry’s offering compares with other competitors in source markets.
As a consequence, it remains very difficult for anyone to have the hard evidence necessary to enable government at either a national or regional level to