Posted By: Fitzhughlaw
A National Embarrassment - 01/21/2023 11:43 PM
This editorial was long-overdue, but a great piece about the idiotic and inexcusable delays tourists faced at the Road Town Fast Ferry port of entry where there were only 2 immigration officers on duty for an afternoon arrival of a ferry from STT. https://www.bvibeacon.com/editorial-an-apalling-arrival/.
Well-written and on point, these excerpts cogently summarize the gravity of the issue: "Such treatment is a national embarrassment, and it is a major threat to a tourism industry that has been working overtime to recover from the pandemic as it faces increasing competition from abroad. ... Of course, we understand that Immigration and Customs have important jobs to do and that arrival queues can be a hassle the world over. But this is no reason that a small jurisdiction like the Virgin Islands can’t do far better. And do better it must."
Where is the Minister of Tourism? Oh yeah, being a real leader by saying "things need to improve" [ya think?]: "On Friday, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, who is the minister of tourism, told reporters that the government has been working to improve the arrival experience at ports of entry. It is clearly not doing enough."
The first excerpt above characterized it perfectly - “a national embarrassment," and it's NOT the fault of the individual immigration officers (I've always found them to be very polite and professional), but rather mismanagement of them as personnel. Every time I read some epistle online replete with handwringing and all manner of Sturm and Drang about the importance of growing the Territory’s economy I just get disgusted, because that simply won't happen as long as it has a bloated government run by feckless bureaucrats who don’t realize that things like this aren’t just biting the hands that feed them, but are in fact, cutting off a finger.
Well-written and on point, these excerpts cogently summarize the gravity of the issue: "Such treatment is a national embarrassment, and it is a major threat to a tourism industry that has been working overtime to recover from the pandemic as it faces increasing competition from abroad. ... Of course, we understand that Immigration and Customs have important jobs to do and that arrival queues can be a hassle the world over. But this is no reason that a small jurisdiction like the Virgin Islands can’t do far better. And do better it must."
Where is the Minister of Tourism? Oh yeah, being a real leader by saying "things need to improve" [ya think?]: "On Friday, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, who is the minister of tourism, told reporters that the government has been working to improve the arrival experience at ports of entry. It is clearly not doing enough."
The first excerpt above characterized it perfectly - “a national embarrassment," and it's NOT the fault of the individual immigration officers (I've always found them to be very polite and professional), but rather mismanagement of them as personnel. Every time I read some epistle online replete with handwringing and all manner of Sturm and Drang about the importance of growing the Territory’s economy I just get disgusted, because that simply won't happen as long as it has a bloated government run by feckless bureaucrats who don’t realize that things like this aren’t just biting the hands that feed them, but are in fact, cutting off a finger.
