The island’s entertainment industry has survived a mix of successes and difficulties in 2022 but promoters say the sector desperately needs a Value Added Tax (VAT) ease in the New Year.Executive Producer of Nouvelle Vie Inc and CEO of TicketPal veteran events promoter Orlando Newton said the industry’s difficulties started with an absence of activity for two years but continued to be plagued by a lack of flights into the island and for some small producers, the burdensome VAT.“Right now we are in a recovery stage and that recovery stage is going to take longer than most people think it will take. But with the assistance of the government we were able to overcome a lot of the hurdles,” he explained.Speaking to Barbados TODAY on the current state of the industry, Newton, the producer of the popular Crop Over event RISE Barbados, said a hike in costs for promoters also provided some hardship.
