St Kitts is relaxing import duties for its small hotels in a bid to help them keep their costs down and improve quality.
The move, expected to be followed by other Caribbean destinations, means that smaller establishments will be able to buy essential products more cheaply.
They will also be able to save money on purchasing materials required to improve quality.
“Part of the scheme is that hotels have to comply with certain regulations as we seek to improve the quality and sustainability of bed stock,” said the island’s Tourism Minister Richard ‘Skerritt
“We are not interested in helping poor service and poor standard hotels survive. We need to improve if we are to establish a high value tourism product that can be sustained in the future.”
Speaking at the Caribbean marketplace event in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, Skerritt told press he was pleased that St Kitts has persuaded the England cricket team to miss Barbados and fly direct to St Kitts for its warm up game.
“The recent change in captaincy has led to increased media focus on the team and we are anticipating even greater coverage than we had hoped for,” he added.
