St Kitts introduces new airport passenger processing system
Tourism Minister Richard Skerritt said they are hoping to improve the visitor experience without compromising security and border-type requirements.
BASSETERRE, St Kitts, Wednesday December 14, 2011 -Authorities have introduced a passenger processing system aimed at reducing hassle and improving the visitor experience.
It would require passengers arriving at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport receiving a primary examination and if necessary, a secondary inspection after going through Immigration.
Tourism Minister Richard Skerritt said they want to make the process of entering the country as comfortable and as world-class as possible without compromising security and border-type requirements.
“Passengers should be dealt with on a risk basis and the vast majority of passengers travelling to our country are not high-risk passengers,” he noted.
“It is in our interest to make sure that returning nationals and visitors can feel as welcome and as hassle-free as possible on their way into our country.”
Minister Skerritt pointed out that travel has become a fairly tedious exercise since the 9/11 attacks in the US.
“It is in our interest to make sure that returning nationals and visitors can feel as welcome and as hassle-free as possible on their way in to our country. This modernized version of processing passengers into our airport will help to achieve that while allowing Customs to focus on the risk where the risk really is in terms of revenue and security,” he said further.
Deputy Comptroller of Customs Georid Belle believes the system, modeled after the US, would enhance the flow of the passengers resulting in more efficient processing.
“We have done a lot of investment over the last two to three years in several areas including technology, new K-9 Units, iron scanners and intelligence data bases.
These help us to identify passengers that we may have an interest in and it will also help us to fill one of our primary goals, which is the facilitation of the legitimate trade and travel,” he said. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)