Bahamas Hotel Association

ATLANTIS'S casino business is falling "15 per cent year-over-year every year" due to increased competition from many US states, its managing director underscoring the need for the Bahamas to reform its casino gaming laws, while group business for many Bahamian hotels is unlikely to return until "late 2011".

A FORMER Chamber president yesterday questioned whether the Government could "make the hard decisions" necessary to achieve its key objective of bringing the debt-to-GDP ratio down to 40 per cent in the medium term, and warned it was "in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg" through the sharp tax increases on the hotel and auto industry.

THE BAHAMIAN hotel industry is facing a potential five-fold whammy, with the Government adding to increases in National Insurance Board (NIB) contribution rates, electricity costs and Out Island Promotion Board fees by increasing hotel room/guest taxes from 6 per cent to 10 per cent, along with an $5 increase in departure taxes.

* Essential to Move Debt to GDP Out of Danger Zone

* Room Tax and Departure Tax to Increase

* Duty Reduced on Several Energy-Efficient Items

* Ministry of Tourism & Aviation Budget Down Over $2 Million

Delivering a somber message of fiscal constraint, reduced Government expenditures and increases in taxes, Prime Minister The Right Honourable Hubert Ingraham described a series of cost reduction and revenue raising measures today, most which are planned to begin to take effect in July once the new budget is in place.