If 2,000,000 tourists come to Jamaica per year and spend $1,000, where does money go?

[Rob]

Also a lot of the resorts are not owned by Jamaicans or Jamaican companies. My bet is that a lot of the money is leaving the island. Some of those resorts don't even buy food from Jamaica and have food transported by cruise ship from other countries like the United States. The only money making its way to the Jamaican government and people is the tax and money spent between tourist and locals.

jsteil,

I think you are misinformed, but even the foreign owned resorts have to pay taxes to the government. There is their corporate income tax, the GCT on all purchases the guests make (the total AI bill, the room, bars, restaurants, stores besides the duty free) as well as the new room tax which hits the larger mega resorts such as foreign owned Spanish chains the hardest, the charge is per room per night:

1 to 50 rooms US$1
51 to 100 rooms US$2
101 rooms and over US$4

If by chance a resort chain gets a cruise ship to deliver their food, they still have to pay import duty taxes just as in all imported goods. They are simply using the cruise ship instead of a cargo ship - but the import duties work exactly the same.

And many of the "international" chains on the island such as Margaritaville, KFC, Burger King, etc are owned by Jamaican franchisees and work exactly the same way franchises work in North America. One difference is that the successful ones use local Jamaican products when possible, such as KFC which uses local poultry and Burger King using Jamaican beef, lettuce, tomatoes and potatoes. One extreme example how important this is can be demonstrated by the McDonald's franchise chain that failed in Jamaica. They chose to import all their products and Burger King countered with advertisements that they used Jamaican products and people voted with their dollars and the McDonald's chain is no longer on the island.

And contrary to what rumor and speculation is spread all over the Internet - Margaritaville is locally owned by Island Entertainment and pay franchisee royalties to Jimmy Buffett. Island Entertainment also supplies products to many of the island's international chain restaurants and creates many jobs here in Jamaica.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/busin...W-JOBS_9363337

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...business6.html

The foreign owned chains of course have to pay their employees, so that money makes it directly in the hands of the locals.

And in case you didnt know, SuperClubs Resorts, Couples Resorts, Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts are all Jamaican owned. These chains are instrumental in charity projects all over island including building schools, parks, libraries, medical and other community services.

I am constantly puzzled why people tend to think that the Jamaican government would not look out for their own interests. And with the IMF overlooking every deal made, they have to make sure that international deals are made in order to be able to repay the IMF loans...

Why people think this is beyond me... especially with all the proof available to the contrary.

[jsteil]

jsteil,

I think you are misinformed, but even the foreign owned resorts have to pay taxes to the government. There is their corporate income tax, the GCT on all purchases the guests make (the total AI bill, the room, bars, restaurants, stores besides the duty free) as well as the new room tax which hits the larger mega resorts such as foreign owned Spanish chains the hardest, the charge is per room per night:

1 to 50 rooms US$1
51 to 100 rooms US$2
101 rooms and over US$4

If by chance a resort chain gets a cruise ship to deliver their food, they still have to pay import duty taxes just as in all imported goods. They are simply using the cruise ship instead of a cargo ship - but the import duties work exactly the same.

I did state that they paid taxes. The delivering of food was from a Life & Debt documantary on free trade zones in Jamaica.

[Rob]

I did state that they paid taxes. The delivering of food was from a Life & Debt documantary on free trade zones in Jamaica.

While Life & Debt is an excellent historical documentary explaining how the old IMF and World Bank operations worked at the time and did leave Jamaica in worse shape than when it began, it needs to be put in its historical perspective. The World Trade Center buildings were both still standing when that documentary was released and the world has undergone significant changes since then.

Michael Manley was interviewed for the documentary and he died back in 1997. Released in April of 2001, the IMF under went restructuring with less "draconian" rules in 2005 and then again last year. I am in no way defending the IMF (frankly, they dont care about what I say anyway - grin), but facts being what they are, they have eased up a bit on their old dictatorial way of micro-managing the economy's of their loaner countries.

Since that movie was released Jamaica has gotten out of "partnership" with the IMF under the PNP and then back into "partnership" with the IMF under the JLP. When the PNP came back into the government as the ruling party, they have renegotiated the terms of the loans from the IMF, which was unthinkable back in 2001 when the movie was released.

The free trade zone rules have changed substantially as well since 2001, with the current free trade zone rules bearing little resemblance to the rules in effect 13 years ago.

Thank you for your explanation. What you said would make perfect sense if this was 2001 when the documentary was released. But the times have changed and so has those trade zone laws.