The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas “must find solutions in the shortest possible time” to existing and potential passenger bottlenecks at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA), tourism executives warning yesterday that this threatened to undo its transformation into a positive traveller experience.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told Tribune Business that existing problems in the arrivals hall, and anticipated ones at US pre-clearance, could undermine “the success we have achieved in reversing a negative trend” on many tourists’ last experience of the Bahamas.

Calling for all parties to work on a solution, Mr Sands said LPIA’s redevelopment - and associated service improvements by all companies operating at the airport - had achieved “a complete reversal of travellers’ perceptions and experience of the airport”.

That is now under a dual threat. Stuart Bowe, the Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, earlier this week said that in recent weeks it was taking as long as one-and-a-half hours to process arriving air passengers through Bahamas Customs and Immigration.

Mr Bowe, responding to Tribune Business questions, yesterday said there had been “a significant increase in complaints” from travellers about this in the past month.

Apart from creating an unfavourable impression of the Bahamas for stopover visitors arriving in this nation for the first time, Mr Bowe noted that the Customs and Immigration hold-ups were occurring at the worst possible time for the hotel and tourism sectors - the peak Easter season.

One source told Tribune Business yesterday: “I understand there’s lines out there in the arrivals hall [at LPIA] now.

“I’ve got a 12.30pm e-mail from a frustrated traveller, an investor here, who’s wondering why there are only two officers to serve 200 people waiting in line.”

Industry concerns over the increased arrivals waiting time were discussed when Mr Bowe and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) met Fred Mitchell, minister of foreign affairs and immigration, earlier this week.

The BHTA president yesterday confirmed that the matter had also been discussed with Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism, and Immigration officials.

“Over the past month, we’ve seen a significant increase in complaints from travellers about the long queues to go through Bahamas Immigration and Customs,” Mr Bowe told Tribune Business.

“These have been consistently reported to us as being one and one-and-a-half hours to be processed.”

Mr Bowe said the meetings with government officials and ministers had produced agreement on “a number of measures for correcting the situation”.

He added: “All parties recognise that being in the hospitality business, it is important that our nation do everything possible to ensure a warm and efficient welcome to our guests.

“Immigration is also urgently in need of some technology upgrades, which government has promised to put in place. Being in the peak period of our travel season, we are hopeful that the matter can be improved as quickly as possible.”

Mr Bowe said the arrivals processing issues had surfaced just this year. The BHTA, he added, felt the problems were linked to increased passenger numbers, especially from countries “where travellers may need closer scrutiny for the higher levels of security breaches which have occurred in the past from those areas”.

That is a likely reference to passengers arriving on Copa Airlines’ flights from Panama. A number of Colombians, and other Latin Americans, have been charged with drug smuggling and credit card fraud.

Mr Bowe, meanwhile, also suggested that “scheduling and queue management” issues were also impacting the situation.

Compounding the arrivals issues are potential problems on the horizon once again with US pre-clearance. Vernice Walkine, the Nassau Airport Development Company’s (NAD) chief executive, admitted this week that the airport operator was concerned about the impact the sequestration cuts may have on US Customs & Border Patrol (USCBP) staffing levels and scheduling at LPIA.

Mr Sands yesterday said the tourism industry had met with the US authorities in a bid to “mitigate” any problems that might occur.

“Any occurrence that impacts negatively on customer service delivery is a concern to the industry,” he told Tribune Business.

“One of the significant milestones of the new LPIA has been it’s complete reversal of traveller perceptions and experiences at that airport.”

Mr Sands said this had been achieved through a combination of the $409.5 million redevelopment and service improvements by LPIA operators.

“We cannot allow the success that we have experienced to-date in reversing a negative trend to find itself back in the previous position,” he said.

“All stakeholders must work diligently to find the solution to ensure that the airport arrivals and departures experience for all guests to the Bahamas, and Bahamians, is seamless and efficient,” Mr Sands said.

“All of these bottlenecks, we must find a solution to correct in the shortest possible period of time.”

Last summer, more than 350 flights departing to the US from Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) were delayed during a 10-week period due to problems at US pre-clearance.

The problems were highlighted in a Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) September 2012 newsletter, which revealed that in the period between June and mid-August, apart from the US departure delays experienced by airlines - an average of around five delays per day - more than 250 passengers missed their flights due to US pre-clearance hold-ups.

Mr Bowe yesterday said traveller complaints over Us pre-clearance delays “dropped significantly” by year-end 2012, after the US government brought in extra staff and improved process management procedures following lobbying by the Government and Bahamian private sector.

The BHTA chief said he was confident NAD would work with US government agencies again to “make the best out of a potentially difficult situation”.

Suggesting that this would involve better queue management and scheduling staff around peak demand/tourism periods, Mr Bowe told Tribune Business: “Last impressions create lasting impressions.

“No matter how fantastic our facilities are, unless we back that up with sound customer service and a reasonable processing time, we are doing the Bahamas and our industry a disservice.”