for ‘ludicrous, careless and grossly disrespectful’ comments against President Jagdeo
‘He is out of his league!’
PRESIDENT of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association  (CHTA) Mr. Josef  Forstmayr  came in for a stinging rebuke yesterday for his recent “ludicrous, careless and grossly disrespectful” comments  against President Bharrat Jagdeo. Forstmayr was reported by regional media as saying that President Jagdeo is “misinformed about taxation and tourism in various islands throughout the Region”.

His comments, on behalf of regional hoteliers, came in the wake of President Jagdeo’s  dismissal of their concerns about high tax levels in the region as “absolute nonsense”.

President Jagdeo’s comments, in response to the CHTA which had complained that governments were taxing hotels out of existence, were made during a press conference at last weekend’s CARICOM summit in St. Kitts.

“Absolute nonsense,” was how the Guyanese head of state described the CHTA tax concerns.

“All they are fussing about is the taxes and sometimes they themselves do not look at their cost structure. When you look at how much a guest pays for a bottle of Coke in a mini bar in one of the hotels, it is extraordinarily high. They have to look at the cost structure of the industry without constantly (seeking) to blame and go after the meagre tax that governments have from these places,” Mr. Jagdeo told reporters in St. Kitts.

But the CHTA President, in his response, said the association’s members were “most disappointed” by President Jagdeo’s “unfortunate” remarks.

“With all due respect, the CHTA is of the view that President Jagdeo speaks from a misinformed position on taxation in the various islands throughout the region and with little or no knowledge of the tourism industry and the contribution it makes to Caribbean economies,” Forstmayr said, adding that it was precisely for this reason that the CHTA delegation requested a place on the agenda of the just-ended meeting and any future CARICOM summit. 

“It is quite obvious that our political leaders have a narrow and limited perspective on the far-reaching positive effects of tourism on our Caribbean economies,” he added.

The CHTA insists that the hotel and tourism sector is a “tax-riddled industry”.
It says the entire supply chain of the hotel industry bears too much of an increasing tax burden: workers are taxed, supplies are taxed, utilities are taxed and guests of hotels are taxed in several ways including at the hotel, on the airline and at the airport, sometimes with both arrival and departure taxes.

“CHTA would like to extend an open invitation to President Jagdeo, and anyone else misinformed, to a discussion forum on tourism to explore the overwhelming, sometimes immeasurable but undeniable impact that tourism has on our Caribbean economies,” Forstmayr said.

STINGING REBUKE
But Guyana’s Tourism Minister Mr. Manniram Prashad yesterday declared that Forstmayr’s comments are “ludicrous, careless and grossly disrespectful to one of the Region’s and the world’s  most respected leaders and authority on finance and taxation.”
“He is out of his league to suggest that President Jagdeo is misinformed,” Prashad told a news conference at his office.

“I want to inform and remind Mr. Forstmayr that President Jagdeo is well-informed and totally familiar and up-to-date on taxation and tourism matters in the region,” the Guyanese Tourism Minister charged.

He   noted  that President Jagdeo maintains that the concerns of the CHTA concerning heavy tax levels in the regional tourism industry is ‘absolute nonsense’ and rubbish, and that  hoteliers need to pay serious  attention to their cost structure.
As to the overall veracity of the statement made by the CHTA President, Prashad stated, “Mr. Forstmayr is himself misinformed, is totally out of touch with reality and is demonstrating a stereotype mentality.”

According to the Guyanese Tourism Minister, the CHTA President “needs to think out of the box and to come up with new and innovative ideas and strategies to bolster occupancy and hotel profitability.”
He noted, too, that it is unfortunate that the head of a regional association will “seek to hide his inefficiency, lack of vision and solutions and weak leadership  behind such a cowardly attack on one of the region’s  most respected  leaders  and thinkers, with a proven track record of accomplishments  and with  world class expertise in finance  and taxation.”