By Roy Sanford, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
MARK HART, chairman of the Hart Group of Companies, and one of Montego Bay's leading businessmen, says the Government must get rid of 'outdated policies' if the nation is to reap the full potential of the tourism industry.
In an interview with The Gleaner, he said that high taxes on raw material in the tourism sector were compromising value and offering visitors inferior products. "For example", he said, "right now there is a 150 per cent tax on wine and spirits. In a hotel, you might have someone looking at a wine list and they will see a wine that is supposed to sell for $30 and they see it for $65. What they are going to do is walk from the wine and they might end up buying a vodka and tonic. So we are missing a huge opportunity."
According to Mr. Hart, visitors want to spend money but they want to get value for it. "Tourists want to spend money but they are not going to throw it away and they don't want to feel cheated, even if they are millionaires," he noted. "If they want to buy a $100-bottle of wine, and they will buy a $100-bottle of wine, they want to know that it is actually a $100-bottle of wine and not a $50-bottle."
COMPROMISING INGREDIENTS
He said high taxes on certain raw material for food were preventing the growth of gourmet restaurants. "We need to let our chefs express themselves," he said. "They must get the very best possible ingredients to make whatever they are going to create, but with the tax structure we have now, they are basically compromising their ingredients. So they are not able to create to their potential and as a result, we are missing the boat."
Mr. Hart said tourists were leaving Jamaica with money in their pockets, which should never be the case. "In Las Vegas, tourists go to the ATM 10 times to get money out. This is what we need in Jamaica."
