The Caribbean needs to draw in larger investments

Allen Stanford, owner of Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun airlines, called on local governments to knock down unnecessary barriers that put a spoke in the travel industry’s wheel. Mr. Stanford made those remarks during Caribbean Sun’s opening flight between San Juan and the British Virgin Islands’ location of Tortola.

“If investors and the Caribbean are to take diversification seriously, there’re things to bear in mind and do away with, such as those unnecessary regulations that rule travel from one island to another, the uneven implementation of existing guidelines, the lack of protectionism, choking additional taxes and different working rules,” Mr. Stanford was quoted in the Barbados Advocate newspaper.

ARUBA

Aruba Airport Authority (AAA) has once again levied petty taxes on travelers flying to Bonaire. The airport tax on Bonaire-bound travelers has taken its peaks and valleys between 10 to 30 dollars. Bonaire wanted a lower tax hoping to make air traffic between both islands twice as much attractive, the Curaçao Amigoe newspaper reported.