San Pedro, Dominican Republic.- Caribbean Hotels and Tourism Association (CHTA) president  Enrique de Marchena said Wednesday that the Tourism Ministry’s (SECTUR) strategies to mitigate the global economic crisis’ impact on that sector contradicts with the Government’s policy of creating and increasing fees.

He also criticized the way City councils in tourism regions demand tax payments from investment projects, which are exempted by the incentives law.

Marchena said the attitude clashes with the Caribbean islands’ generalized policy to protect the tourism industry, in response to its difficulties.

He said it’s of concern that while Tourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia has pledged to promote awareness with his other Government colleagues, its agencies foment a growing practice creating taxes via the administrative route or exorbitantly increase the rates charged to the hotels. “The measures announced (by Garcia) are important, but most of them more than a plan against the crisis, are the type of regular policies which should’ve been put into practice three or four years and instead constitute an update which couldn’t wait.”

He cited the case of the private aqueducts which some have to build hotels where there’s no public water supply, and the Port Authority’s decision to collect taxes on marinas and tourist piers built by the private sector.

Marchena, speaking in the university UCE, said countries such as Antigua, Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, St Martin, St Kitts & Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines have adopted serious measures including tax reduction and exemptions on fuel, yacht operators, the cost of rooms, imported article for hotels, payrolls, and foods and wines.