| Long Lines At Airport, Who Is To Blame? |
| Mon, March 20, 2017 |
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Last week we told you about reports that some hotels are seeing lower occupancy rates in 2017, than last year or the year before. But the BTB has been reporting steady increases in overnight arrivals, and it seems the immigration department just cannot keep up. Very long lines of inbound and outbound visitors have been piling up at the airport recently - because there's not enough staff to process them expeditiously. This video was taken on Saturday when the airport is usually the fullest. Outbound passengers - 95% tourists - were stuck in a sprawling line that spanned the entire length of the expended Terminal two. Problem is, there are only two immigration booths to process all those outbound visitors. Similarly on the inbound side at the arrivals lounge, even a massive new arrival hall that's been built could not accommodate all the passengers, and last week they were seen lining up outside, all along the length of the building. Again, there are two few immigration posts to process them inside. Now, there are reports that the Immigration Officers may have been on g-slow and that accounted for the outlandish lines but form what we've seen and been able to find out, that is not the case: they're not going slow, they're just overwhelmed! We could not reach the Director of Immigration. |
