After almost 30 years with no changes, Barbados is going to double the “head tax” that cruise ship passengers have to pay.
This was one of the things Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill said on Monday, when his ministry was the first to be looked at during the Estimates Debate in the House of Assembly over the Appropriation Bill 2023.
After a Cabinet shuffle in October, Gooding-Edghill took over the ministry from Senator Lisa Cummins. In November 2024, she said, the tax would go up from $6 to $12.
The “head tax” that is charged to every cruise passenger who visits the island was once a major point of contention between cruise operators in the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association and some regional governments. At the time, these governments thought that the cruise industry needed to pay more money to keep island destinations going.
This time, though, Minister Gooding-Edghill said that the cruise ship operators did not fight against the higher levy. She said this because it had been decades since the tax had been changed.
In response to questions from Charles Griffith, a member of parliament for St. John, the Tourism Minister said that the cruise industry understood why the rates had to be changed. He also said that the long time before the price hike went into effect would give the cruise industry enough time to adjust to the change.
Gooding-Edghill said that Barbados had kept a high level of goodwill with key players in the international cruise sector because the island offered a safe harbor for cruise ships during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped thousands of stranded crew members get back home when ports in the region turned them away because of fears of COVID-19 infection.
The MP for St. Michael West Central also told the Lower House that the cruise industry had thanked former Minister Cummins and Prime Minister Mottley for their help during one of its most difficult times.
He said that the cruise industry was very competitive, but that Barbados was still one of the top three places to visit in the Caribbean.
