GOVERNMENT could be missing out on valuable tax revenue because of the way some hotels and luxury villas are marketing their properties, says chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Sue Springer.
She told BHTA members yesterday that although the island had registered a 14 per cent growth in long-stay arrivals year to date, “we have not seen that really reflected in the occupancies we are being given by our hotels and villa sector where we have seen an average increase of maybe between five to eight per cent”.
While giving an update on the industry’s performance at the BHTA’s third quarterly meeting at Hilton Barbados, Springer suggested the anomaly could be associated with the way some properties had elected to market themselves through Airbnb, a San Francisco-based international website where people from across the globe list, find and rent lodging-type accommodation.
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