With the 2018/2019 tourism season, and the reopening of hotels in Anguilla, now about to take centre stage, industry partners in the public and private sectors are contemplating the best possible ways of improving access to the island – not only by air but by sea link with St. Maarten in particular. It was the main discussion point at a meeting on October 19 at the Anguilla Tourist Board’s conference room. The attendees included hotel managers, travel group representatives, personnel from the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourist Board, Hotel and Tourism Association, Customs and Immigration officials, the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority (AASPA) and ferryboat operators.
Mr. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, set the tone for the meeting. “Over the coming season there will be groups and other large check-ins, and I think that is going to be a big challenge for us. It might be a challenge now but if we work together to deal with it, we will definitely overcome it,” he said. “At the head table we have Immigration, AASPA and Customs. These are the people who, when guests arrive at our ports, are the ones who determine how quickly they get through. I think when visitors come here they wait far too long at the ports. We need to understand the situation when it comes to security and customs responsibility, but we really have to search our hearts to see if we can speed up the process a bit. I think that people who constantly come back to us year after year mean they care about us – not just about our beaches or restaurants – they care about everything about Anguilla.”
One of the steps taken to facilitate the arrival of visitors to Anguilla has been the urgent rebuilding of the island’s unique port facility in Dutch St. Maarten where travellers, bound for Anguilla, come over on ferries. There appears to be much demand being placed on the port in its handling of ferries and passengers travelling to Anguilla to make the trip as seamless as possible.
But, at the same time, the Anguillian Manager of the port facility in St. Maarten, Mr. Leslie Lloyd, was emphatic at the meeting in detailing the requirements to enforce the rules governing the operations of the port, the handling of visitors and their transfer to the Anguilla ferries. “We must be mindful that there are two components: the regulatory component and the hospitality component,” he stressed in one case. “What I am listening to here all the time is that we are harping on the hospitality component and not recognizing the most important component which is regulatory.
“We are operating an official port of entry in St. Maarten. Anguilla is operating a port in a foreign country which has regulations. Now, more than ever, the border control is in the hands of the Dutch. I will do my duty in St. Maarten in a manner that I will not do anything to embarrass the Government or the Tourist Board in Anguilla. Everything I do, I will stay within the limits of the law. The problem we have in this whole process is that we have the regulatory body, the boat operators, the crew members and others. Until everybody does his or her part, it will be chaos.” He stressed that in order for the port to operate efficiently “everybody – we must follow the rules.”
Mr. Lloyd pointed out that the Anguilla Government, through the Tourist Board, pays thousands of dollars a year to operate the port in St. Maarten, “but nobody wants to pay for its services and we have it up to date. The sad thing is that only one operator is paying and that’s the other component.
Another point made at the meeting, concerned the handling of visitors during their actual arrival in Anguilla, at the Blowing Point Port, where the formal passenger services have been disrupted by Hurricane Irma. While the Immigration and Customs operations and services remain the same, there is significant inconvenience in operating in temporary and makeshift facilities – which can result in delays in dealing with large numbers of visitors, and their luggage, passing through the port.
It is a matter that travel-group representatives, like Mimi Gratton, commented on – as well as the need for more space to handle groups. Responding, Comptroller of Customs, Mr. Travis Carty, indicated that there was a need for both the Immigration and Customs Departments in Anguilla to be informed well in advance about the arrival of groups on the island. “We all know that tourism is our main industry, but we need to have a little more communication…and not everyone does that,” he pointed out. “There are days when we are caught off guard with staff shortages [and other issues] and don’t have an idea that a group is coming to Anguilla – and cannot reorganize ourselves…”
A second matter raised by the travel group representatives was the need for the proper handling of baggage – noting that at times some visitors’ baggage was left unattended by porters. It was suggested that ferryboat operators should be responsible for looking after the baggage to assist with the smooth operations and services of the port.
Infrastructure Advisor at the Department of Infrastructure, Mr. Julian Daniel, who represented the Port Authority, gave a comprehensive explanation about plans to improve the handling of persons travelling through the port until the new passenger terminal is built. He spoke about arrangements to use the “Big Jim Building”, north of the port, as a temporary and suitable facility to handle travellers leaving or arriving in Anguilla – and other matters related to port operations.
“There has been quite a relaxed mode with respect to conforming to regulatory international specifications and requirements. That’s not going to [continue] to happen in the very near future,” he disclosed. “We are going to have our ports being audited by the US and the UK; also, some of the ferries might not run in the near future. It is better to understand that this is a requirement and there has been a blink at what is happening, but things are going to change and will change. Anguilla is very correct in having certain systems in place but the systems must also conform with the whole aspect of hospitality. So it is not for our guests to feel as if they are a threat, or that this is an unwelcoming atmosphere. It is a delicate balance.”
He continued: “What we are getting into is a temporary situation. The temporary situation is to utilize what’s called “The Big Jim Building”, in Blowing Point, which the Dolphin Discovery used to do their processing through and so on. There will be retro-fitting of that building. AASPA has been working along with customs, immigration and security to make that building as fit for purpose as possible. It is not the ideal situation but, in some instances, it should be more comfortable than what we have now.
“The key, I think, to making it work well is how expeditiously we process our guests. The intent is also to utilize this temporary situation as a template for a permanent situation in terms of electronic processing, pre-processing – having information come over from St. Maarten before the ferry reaches, utilizing electronic and social electronic avenues, and trying to perfect a methodology that would help with that whole seamless transition.
“There will be bumps in the road but the intent is, while we are in that temporary situation, to have the permanent building being constructed. The maximum time we are looking at for the completion of the terminal building is within two years; and the hope was to have it completed by the tourist season next year – but we don’t work on our own in terms of Anguilla. We have UK partners to work with; they are providing the funding and there are certain things we have to comply with…”
Mr. Daniel went on: “There are challenges because the building is on a family estate. It is not on its own parcel. Although it may have an owner, there are still administrators of the estate who have a say, so the whole legal aspects are being worked out…The lease hasn’t been signed yet. When Dolphin Discovery did their business with the owner, they were two private entities which could do whatever they wanted. This is UK grant funding and we cannot do whatever we want. It has to be legal. The owner is to have legal title, the administrators of the estate have to give permission – and they are also concerned about not absorbing any kind of liability or risk if anything were to happen in the operation of that building as a terminal. All of that has been taken care of – insurance etc. We hope to do the signing this week and we can go full scale [forward]. The retro-fitting has not been very overt because you don’t want to upset anyone. The owner also doesn’t want to upset the rest of his family. But we have been building as we cleaned out; the internal partition has been taken down; there are some partitions that have been worked on; immigration booths have been designed and worked on…”
Mr. Daniel stated that the plans also include a covered walkway access to the building from the piers, and that assistance in terms of ideas from stakeholders would be welcomed. He further said: “There has been discussion on utilizing promotional billboards and on, but we don’t want the walkway cluster phobic – but as open and inviting as possible with foliage and plants…[and] other amenities that could be added so that the walk from the jetties up can be as pleasant as possible.
“Eventually there will be a partition on the western side because that will be a construction site. The idea is to have cargo and passenger operations separated. The passengers will come up the walkway basically in line with the gate of the port that the fuel and service vehicles go through. There is a portion of tarmac that the taxis park on…and that will be part of the walkway. On the eastern side, where there is gravel, dirt and so on, that will be used as a back end for cargo. Cargo will go through one end of the building – passengers will go through the other and will meet their baggage inside. In terms of being expeditious, there may be groups that will be ushered through and their baggage will take a different route.”
One of the side issues raised, relating to the use of the building was the question of having additional space for accommodating large groups visiting Anguilla.
