The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer :: The Federation's Poltically Independent News Source

The Allure of the Seas will come on December 30, 2011 and find us wanting. I have written on several occasions to the tourism authorities, published several articles in the local newspapers and have given several interviews to various media groups about my concerns for the state of readiness for visitors at Port Zante. The situation at Port Zante continues to decay even though several bits of legislation have been passed into law and some regulations have been established by the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. I have been called in by the CEO and others to voice my concerns, opinions and suggestions on the operations of the welcome, dispatch and departure of visitors as they go back to their ship. This I have given freely and in spite of agreement with many of my suggestions not much has been done with regards to them.

The Welcome

As a visitor arrives in port, the first thing he or she does is to look at the landscape, the surroundings and the environment in general and makes a preliminary assessment. For us Port Zante, the volcanic cone of Mount Olivees with the folded mountain ridges to the North and East of Basseterre, with the slope from the foothills in an even gradient down to the sea, all covered in lush vegetation with varying hues of green, the city of Basseterre and the district of St. Peter’s all combine to paint a beautiful picture. This has always created a positive first impression for our visitors. As the visitors get to the terminal building there are no overt expressions of welcome save for a static sign on the building at Port Zante. They then are bombarded by the dispatchers as well as the calls from other taxi operators who are illegally perched on the rocks at the end of the pier, which acts as a buffer to the waves on the coast line. Then there are also a number of other operators lining the eastern fence of the enclosure beckoning to the visitors as they go pass the security fences.

Signage

It is imperative that various signs be posted that direct the visitors to the various positions. For example, signs pointing out areas for: Pre-Booked Tours, Taxi Dispatchers, Tours, Beaches and general Information in bold lettering. Most visitors look for these directions and this would reduce the unwanted hassle to a large extent.

Haggling for the job

Worst yet, as they exit the terminal building, there are scores of operators shouting at the visitors with many of them waving signs and other paraphernalia offering the various tours and beach excursions. The saddest moment is observed when the operators engage each other in the throat-cutting with regards to prices for tours and beach excursions in which a visiting group has indicated interest. For example, the Government regulated price for an island tour around St. Kitts is twenty dollars ($20) and I have seen my colleagues battling against each other in price war that sometimes end up at the ridiculously low price of eight dollars ($ 8) per person to travel for almost forty miles in air conditioning for over three and a half hours while making stops on the demands of the visitors. It is no wonder that so many of these operators have to face embarrassment when they cannot meet the demands of their payments on loans and the purchasing of tyres and other spare parts. I said it before that this type of competition for the job simply highlights the needs and the greed of some taxi operator. A few days ago while sitting in the shade at Romney Manor, a mature gentleman who was visiting on one of the cruise ships came up to me and said “…Why are you all underselling this beautiful country? Your are throwing away money.” He further went on to state that as he got to the terminal he was approached by the official dispatcher who offered him a tour for twenty dollars but he was not quite ready to take the tour as he wanted to look around for a bit. As he got to the outside he was again approached by another operator who offered the tour for twenty dollars.
As he proceeded down the avenue of shops, he was harassed by several operators who were consistently offering him the tour for fifteen dollars, then one operator offered the tour at twenty five dollars for a couple thus making it twelve dollars and fifty cents each($ 12.50). That embarrassed him. He eventually went back to the operator that charged twenty dollars for the tour. The visitors know pretty much what they want to do when they come here, as they would have read from the internet or from the many bits of promotional material that are published in many places. If the operators were to hold one head, and stick to the regulated price the visitor will pay what is demanded for what they want.

The legislation

The Prescribed Areas Act of 2009 has a prescription for the behaviour of operators at areas like Port Zante. The implementation of this act has seen some setbacks as all the cases taken before Courts have been dismissed by the magistrates for one reason or other which makes the legislation ineffective and further frustrate the police as they try to bring some semblance of order at Port Zante. The Attorney General and his team need to go back to the legislation and make the necessary adjustments to the Laws so that the police could get convictions over the offending operators and that the police can be comfortable in the execution of their duties.

Departures

At the end of the day when visitors are leaving to go back on the ship there are no visible officers from the Tourism Authority at the terminal to say farewell and thanks for visiting and to further invite the visitors to return. I have taken it onto myself on several occasions to position myself in the information booth towards the end of the day and use my voice to simply say thank you for coming.

Evaluation

There are no direct evaluation done by the Tourism Authority to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the Tourism Product. From each tour or excursion it is necessary to get feedback from the visitors. This could be done by providing evaluation cards that the visitor can check of their level of satisfaction with particular tours and the respective operator. The employees of the Tourism Authority on the ground at Port Zante demonstrate a level of indifference to their work. They too must be evaluated and be encouraged to increase their effectiveness by whatever means necessary, for example, such as incentives, training or financial rewards.

We here in St. Kitts have a fantastic product that must be maximized to give us the greatest return. Many of us have dedicated our efforts to Cruise Tourism by functioning as, employees of the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Authority, taxi and tour operators, vendors, shopkeepers, monkey handlers, hair braiders and massagers as our principal occupation and it provides us with the major part of our income. This sector seems to be the main engine of growth in the total economy of St. Kitts and Nevis and we cannot afford for our efforts to be in vain. Therefore every effort to keep it thriving must be pursued.

During the last thirteen years I have cruised to many destinations, including the entire Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, Europe, the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the North Eastern coast of North America and have seen how the various people have integrated their culture in the welcome. I have studied the statistics of Tourism and its significance and importance to the economy of many countries. With this onset of a global recession more and more persons are having less and less disposable income and the areas of that are affected most are areas of leisure which encompass tourism activities. Greece, Italy and Portugal are in economic turmoil because of the reduction in revenue from tourism. These are countries rich in history, culture and places of global note. We in our little island Paradise, St. Kitts, must ensure that we continue to be a zone of peace and tranquillity if we are to sustain the apparent growth in Tourism.