Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Brian Mullis has labelled the newly implemented fees on travellers at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) as excessive and has called on the government and the CJIA’s management to reexamine them.
“The government mandated airport security fee and new passenger service charge at CJIA are excessive. It is already expensive to travel to and within Guyana,” Mullis told Stabroek News yesterday.
His comments came a day after former Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin said the “arbitrarily” implemented fees will have a negative impact on the country’s tourism sector.
Mullis yesterday shared a similar view and added that with Guyana competing with every other destination in the world for visitors, the additional fees “will negatively impact leisure visitation, which is directly affected by price.”
“Based on the 21% increase in leisure visitation in 2018 and the increased value tourism represents as an export sector, we need to focus on reducing the cost to visit Guyana and increasing the value of the experience,” he said before adding that “tourism destinations that want to attract more travellers are making it less expensive to visit.”
He stated that the GTA would welcome a dialogue between the International Air Transport Association (IATA), CJIA and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure since they are in “the best position to work with the airlines to resolve the issue.” He noted that they would like see a proper calculation of the appropriate fees and a better means for implementation based on global standards.
Caribbean Airlines last week advised travellers that the CJIA has increased its airport security fee and introduced a passenger service charge, effective from April 1st, in order to support the improvements at the airport.
As a result, the cost to travellers for a return (round) trip is US$35 (GY$7,315), while for departing passengers it is US$17, and for one-way departing passengers it is US$15, payable in Guyana dollars at the prevailing foreign exchange rate.
Mullis also noted that his agency and the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) have been fielding complaints from the private sector on the impact of the fees.
Gaskin on Wednesday told this publication, “People book flights based on price and if you charge US$20 more, it will have an impact. Countries who know this, they don’t just raise arbitrarily, they do all kinds of assessments to decide on how it will impact the industry.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Tuesday expressed concern over the implementation of the new fees and called for immediate dialogue with the management of the airport and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. The organisation had pointed out that it has worldwide standards in place enabling airlines to collect government-imposed fees, service charges and taxes as part of an airline ticket. These are then transferred to the respective governments. It noted that this has provided a smoother travel experience for passengers by eliminating the former practice whereby many governments manually collected some of these fees and taxes at airports.
IATA asked for clarity from the airport operator on how the fees and charges have been calculated, while charging that international standards set out by the Inter-national Civil Aviation Organisation’s Document 9082 were not followed.
Stabroek News yesterday reached out to Chief Executive Officer of the CJIA Ramesh Ghir for clarity on the fees but repeated efforts proved futile, as calls to his phone went unanswered.
