The government of St Lucia plans to introduce a tourist accommodation fee to fund destination marketing and development, with all accommodation providers on the island required to collect the charge from guests from 1 April 2020. For a nightly rate below US$120 the fee will be US$3, then US$6 for higher rates.
The fees will be paid by the stayover visitor and collected by accommodation providers who will remit the fees collected to Government via the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority. Guests at accommodation services sourced through sharing platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO will be subject to an accommodation fee of 7% on the full cost of the stay.
The tourist accommodation fee will be used to finance the destination marketing activities undertaken by the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority as it promotes St Lucia’s tourism product worldwide and particularly in key markets within the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, the UK and Europe. The fee will also be used to support village tourism development and destination management and development of the local product in St Lucia.
St Lucia attracts some 350,000 visitors every year. The SLTA has set a target of 541,000 stay-over visitors by 2022 and has an annual budget for marketing and promotion of approximately US$35 million.
