The owner and operator of a family owned hotel operation in American Samoa is strongly opposed to a bill that imposes a seven percent tax on hotel rooms and five percent on rental tax.
Avamua Dave Haleck, of Tradewinds Hotel, says if American Samoa is trying to grow the tourism industry, having a room tax would not help the effort at all.
He says if occupancy levels were 70 or 80 percent than a tax might be justified but it is not at this time.
Industry officials says American Samoa has about 200 plus rooms with only a 50 percent occupancy rate.
