It wasn’t the radar breakdown at Nassau International Airport last week that upset travellers. It was the silence from the authorities that had irate visitors e-mailing the Guardian with their grievances.
The delays culminated in a series of unfortunate events the effects of which may be too early to tell but judging from the e-mails corrective measures for handling similar incidents may be necessary.
“In this modern world accidents happen, machinery breaks down and needs to be fixed. But, for a country that depends on flights and tourism, the prolonged length of this problem, lack of apology to people caught in the middle of it, and the absence of aggressive positive measures to minimise travellers’ negative experiences is deplorable,” said Alison McAllister, a visitor from Oregon to The Bahamas for the last 18 years. “I would hope this experience stimulates the forming of a proactive response team.”
In the absence of formal contingency planning, the Ministry of Tourism and Atlantis pitched in to make ” stranded passengers more comfortable with food items and blankets. The airline’s operators said they did the best that they could in informing passengers about the delays based on the information available to them.
Not good enough said Joseph Grinbaum. He thinks the airlines fell down on the job. “We were never told at check in that there was a problem with the radar. They [American Airlines] checked us in and then we had to go through U.S. Customs. That took about two hours. We still did not know there was a problem with any flights.” Mr Grinbaum and his family, who were returning to Los Angeles, were few of the several hundred tourists that ended up spending an unbudgeted day or two more in The Bahamas. Altogether, the two extra days left his family $1,000 in the hole.
Mr. Grinbaum’s “not good enough” could also apply to the way in which the various bodies responsible for running and managing the airport handled the problem. It wasn’t until media reports began appearing that executives began coming forward but by then the damage had been done.
Coming into the New Year, Ministry of Tourism (MOT) officials will need to assess the extent of the damage done to the industry. After an aggressive year of campaigns and initiatives to boost the industry, it’s hard not to wonder how many steps backward the NIA fiasco has taken the industry.
“This trip that we had planned to Atlantis was going to be a very relaxing vacation, instead it was the vacation from Hell. I have told my friends about what happened to us and they do not have intention to visit Nassau in the near future. Neither do I,” said an irate Mr Grinbaum.
Comments like these underscores the steady stream of warnings by the MOT about the impact of negative impressions. Time and again Bahamians have heard that unhappy visitors do not return, and even worse they discourage potential visitors to these shores by telling them about such horror experiences as the one told by “Angel” who was in the “mix-up” of things last Monday “Picture an airport filled with people waiting to board their flights, a room that felt as if the air conditioning had broken down, hot, humid, filled with several thousand people with no place to sit, no fresh air, long lines to the bathrooms or for food, and children and elderly lying on the floor,” said the former resident of Nassau.
“We were told nothing …No one was allowed to leave unless they were escorted and were given no information to enable them to make a decision about whether to stand all day and wait or leave and find lodging and come back the next day. Thousands of people, exhausted and frustrated, found themselves having to leave the airport and take expensive taxis to seek lodging. “Travellers without adequate funds were entirely at a loss!”
Although most of the letters tell a slightly different dreadful version of a similar tale, what is common among all of them is the exclamation of no return. “I am telling my Bahamian friends to visit me here in the U.S. because I will not return to Nassau.”
Edith Cash, an American Bahamian living in Atlanta and visiting “home” for the holidays recalls sitting in a plane “full of angry tourists who had just spent their hard earned money on Christmas in The Bahamas.” She also recalls that they were livid because they were offered neither meal or hotel vouchers. Despite an apology from the Civil Aviation authorities in the days following the radar malfunction, Ms Cash said, “The Bahamas has to get up to speed and treat airport issues like national emergencies.” A painful reminder of the embarrassment brought on the country, Ms Cash echoed a point worth more than dollars. “These folks were adamant that they will not be visiting The Bahamas again,” she said.
By: BARRY WILLIAMS Guardian Staff Reporter
