Great Bay – On Friday December 18, 2009 a delegation from Anguilla, led by Minister of Tourism Victor Banks, met with Commissioner of Tourism & Aviation Frans Richardson and Acting Lt. Governor of St. Maarten Mrs. Millicent Acuna-Lopez De Weever amongst others.The meeting which was coordinated by Commissioner Frans Richardson, was chaired by the Acting Lt. Governor and addressed challenges expressed by Minister Banks which Anguilla inbound and outbound visitors face while in transit via St. Maarten.
Some of the challenges Minister Banks expressed surrounded both air and sea bridge mediums of getting to and from Anguilla. With Anguilla's visitor traffic via Blowing Point seaport terminal representing approx 75% and WallBlake Airport representing the remaining 25%, the need to streamline a more efficient handling/ processing of the immigration documents of visitors in-transit in St. Maarten is important to enhancing the visitor/resident travel experience.
One of the challenges specifically in the case of visitors destined for Anguilla who arrive at the Princess Juliana International Airport, is the cumbersome process of clearing immigration via the long lines. Minister Banks would like to see a more efficient processing of intransit passengers in a separate line. This would reduced the number of passenger misconnects and or delays via air or sea. Additionally the process after clearing immigration in the arrival terminal still faces further logistical challenges, which creates further delays in getting to the departure hall for connecting flights. While during the meeting the airport authorities proposed some solutions, Commissioner Richardson pledged to have further discussions on this process with the Airport authorities and Immigration to see how this situation can be improved, in the shortest possible time.
Other challenges pertains to passengers destined to and from Anguilla via motor vessels. There are some delays that passengers encounter due to the logistical challenges for the clearing process at the Simpsonbay Police Station. The two key pickup and drop off points (Dutchside) are at the former Stop and Shop Dock at the airport and the Police Station at the Simpsonbay Bridge. Parties agreed that this will require a more in depth structural solution to facilitate the process. However now that there is a better understanding of the issues, parties have agreed to diligently workout solutions in the interest of enhancing the tourism traffic both islands enjoy and the resulting economic spinoff thereof.
The Anguilla delegation consisted of Minister of Tourism Victor Banks, Donna Banks (Special Advisor Tourism) and Brenda Proctor (Deputy Director of Immigration). While St. Maarten was represented in the meeting by Acting Lt. Governor Mrs. Millicent Acuna-De Weever, Commissioner Frans Richardson, Geronimo Julliete (Head of Immigration), Regina Labega (Head of Tourism Department), Edward Dest (Tourist office), Fernando William (Advisor to Commissioner Frans Richardson), Eugene Holiday (President-PJIAE), Larry Donker (Oper. Dir PJIAE) and Migdala Artsen (Legal Advisor PJIAE).
A follow up meeting to present short term as well as long term actions and possible solutions, that will be worked out will be scheduled shortly after the parties involved have had a chance to evaluate the situation.
