On my most recent trip to the Caribbean, sailing a charter group through both the Windward and Leeward Islands, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the islands are cutting their own throats through the implementation of painful customs procedures. This fundamentally limits where you can go and when you can go.
English Harbour, Antigua was particularly dreadful and it took me some 3.5 hours to clear customs here. Papers need to be filled in SIX times to meet the needs of the Antiguan buerocracy. When you have 8-10 crew on board, this starts to become ridiculous. Presumably super yachts with even larger crews really struggle. Clearing out in Jolly Harbour took 1.5 hours. The staff were stiff and surly. I have to be honest, I will now actively discourage visits to Antigua because of this as it is likely that charter crews will suffer the loss of almost a whole day of the charter by visiting here.
St Lucia seems similar but I suspect that this is a result of poor integration between government departments.
Similarly, St Vincent can be a little onerous.
I think one of the issues is that yacht entry fees to islands are an important source of revenue and this is fine however, on this last trip for example I had to clear in and out of customs and immigration some 8 times. Inevitably, this takes up half a morning / afternoon and limits what crews can do whilst this process is taking place. This seriously damages the vacation time (particularly with American clients who have such poor holiday allowances) and leads them to the conclusion that the Caribbean is simply to beurocratic to allow a good free flowing holiday.
I do not understand why CaribCom countries cannot come up with a single scheme that issues arriving charter parties with a Smartcard that can be quickly swiped at clearance anchorages. Fees can then be quickly calculated and paid and crews and enjoy the islands quickly, spending money on the island. All the time that crews are sat on a boat waiting for Skippers to return to announce they can go ashore is time that these crews are not spending money on the islands.
Given that the typical charter crew may only visit an anchorage / island for a night or two, this can mean that islands are losing 30-40% tourist dollar spend time on their islands. Is this not more valuable to the overall wellbeing of the islands and their communities than $25EC clearance fee?
During this trip, I came across two yachtsmen, both of whom had been coming to the Caribbean for over 20 years, both had come to the conclusion that the onerous paperwork generated by these countries made the Windward & Leewards Islands a less enjoyable place to visit and thus they were both electing to move their boats North to escape this beaurocracy.
Very interested in others opinions on this as I would at some point like to make representations to government officials about this.
Labels: Antigua Customs Immigration, Caribbean Cruising, Caribbean Customs Regulations
