April 08, 2011--HAMILTON, Bermuda -- The CEO of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Alec Sanguinetti said on Wednesday that the industry is having its worse period in its history due to the ongoing global financial crisis and government taxation policies.

"The industry I would say is threatened and unfortunately because of the contracting of government revenue because of the downturn in tourism (and) tourism has become the bull's-eye for taxation," Sanguinetti told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC)

"We have seen an increase in taxes on room nights; we have seen an increase on air tickets; we now have one or two governments who are looking at putting taxes on service charges. We need to get some relief," he said.

Sanguinetti said that there was need now for greater collaboration between the regional private and public sectors.

"But we need to re-tool our industry. There are things that are within our control to fix, which we need to do and the longer those policy issues are ignored the more serious it will be, not only for the hotel industry, but for the entire industry," he said.

He said that the industry is "half dead already," adding there is not much more to kill.

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