BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE recently implemented St. Christopher Tourism Authority Prescribed Areas Act 2009 paints taxi operators as “beggars” and “villains”.
That is the opinion of Austin Edinborough, an independent taxi operator from St. Pauls who feels that the new legislation, which was implemented earlier this year, threatens his livelihood as an entrepreneur in the tourism industry.
“That act, I feel, is an anti-trade piece of legislation. It degrades the taxi operation as begging. The tourism industry is one of human interactions. No aspect of tourism is completed without having a conversation.
“When we speak to a visitor, according to that act, whether it is in Port Zante or any prescribed area that they may seek to regulate, it is considered soliciting. That is reducing us to the lowest stature in society…to that of beggar. Soliciting is an offense that is predicated upon begging,” Edinborough told SKNVibes.
According to the Tourism Authority, the act would limit taxi and tour operators from interacting with tourists in Port Zante unless those tourists venture into areas specified for the sale of their services and are directed to operators by appointed dispatchers.
On October 3, shortly after the legislation was put in place, four taxi operators were arrested for soliciting to cruise ship passengers outside of the dispatch area.
“They basically wanted to behave in a way that would damage St. Kitts as a premier…destination. Police were there, they gave them several warnings and yet they would not comply,” Tourism Authority Communications Manager Saju N’galla told WINN FM shortly after the incident took place.
Edinborough and several other taxi operators said that they do not disagree with everything in the Prescribed Areas Act, but feel that certain aspects of it infringe upon their ability to provide quality services to visitors.
“I am not saying that there is not a need for controls to govern the conduct of operators. Some people really do need to be regulated, but it must not prevent you from plying your trade,” Edinborough said.
A million dollar industry
Since the inception of the act, drivers feel that there has been a rise in the number of police officers present at Port Zante on days when cruise ships are docked.
Edinborough described one occasion in which a Spanish-speaking visitor approached him after struggling to find a taxi operator that she could communicate with. As one of the few operators who is fluent in Spanish, Edinborough noticed the trouble she was having and struck up a conversation with her. After determining that she wanted to see more of St. Kitts, he described the type of tours he offers and what the rates are.
It was at this point that a police officer, who Edinborough said did not speak any Spanish, approached and attempted to break up the transaction because he thought the woman was being harrassed. The driver claimed the woman later confessed to him that she felt threatened by the police presence and intervention.
According to Edinborough, the new legislation has caused these sorts of altercations to increase dramatically as police officers see any taxi drivers who are operating outside of the dispatch area as a “bother” to the tourists.
“It is these situations that are creating an unwelcoming atmosphere and the confrontation. I am not saying that if we break the law we should not be dealt with. I am saying don’t create that atmosphere by interfering with legitimate trade.”
A group of taxi drivers gathered at the port on a slow day without a ship call told SKNVibes that increased police presence is not the only problem with the new legislation.
Because tourists must walk a substantial distance from the point of disembarkation to reach the dispatchers station, an area that cannot be seen when passengers first leave a cruise ship, taxi operators feel that business on the direct path to the dispatcher are “distractions” with an unfair advantage of roping in limited tourist spending dollars.
“The average number of passengers that come on a cruise ship to St. Kitts is, let’s say, 2 500. Out of that number, 50 percent or more have already pre-booked their tours,”
Edinborough said. “It leaves [taxi drivers] with 50 percent. Out of that 1 250, you have about three or four hundred who are not going to go on any tour. That leaves us with about 700 passengers to divide among 400 taxi drivers.”
“Unless we can convince people who might otherwise stay on the port to go and see some of St. Kitts, then we will not be able to increase our take on what is left and some of us will end up with nothing,” he added.
Apart from the potential for lost revenue, the new legislation requires taxi drivers to pay an increased amount to keep their licenses.
According to the President of the St. Christopher Taxi Association, Calvin Leader, the added license registration cost is a far more pressing issue than the proposed dispatching system, which he feels would benefit the industry overall by unifying the taxi drivers’ approach.
“One thing I have a problem with is that there is a part of [the Act] which says that every three years you have to renew your license. They use the word recertified. What we recommend is that we should do it every five years,” Leader said.
The Prescribed Areas Act 2009 requires drivers to pay $300 every three years for “recertification”. With roughly 400 taxi drivers currently operating in St. Kitts, this would add an additional $120 000 every three years to the operational costs of taxi drivers.
According to Edinborough, the additional recertification cost would further “devalue” the taxi industry, which he estimates to contribute nearly EC$2.3M to the economy annually through business licenses, wheel tax, insurance tax, insurance premiums and certification costs before a single passenger even pays for a fare or buys a single souvenir.
The customer is always right
In the off-peak season of 2009, several disputes erupted between taxi drivers and tour operators over where and to whom access to cruise ship passengers should be granted.
The Tourism Authority made claims at that time that some cruise lines had received complaints from passengers about the behaviour of taxi and tour operators in St. Kitts being unprofessional. The officials in the Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism felt this was causing a negative impact on the industry, and thus introduced the Prescribed Areas Act to regulate the operators.
SKNVibes spoke to various business owners on Port Zante. Some expressed the opinion that the newly introduced legislation is a broad sweeping law punishing everyone for the behaviour of select individuals and does little to enhance the experience for visitors to the Federation.
Proprietor of Caribbean Treasures Barry Tahdani said he has customers on a regular basis that would benefit from taxi operators being able to pick up and drop off guests closer to the docked ships.
“We need to be thinking about what our guests want, not what we want. After being at the beach all day, they are exhausted and do not want to walk a long way to get back to the ship.”
Prior to the new legislation being enacted, Tahdani always had a row of five taxi operators in front of his business, which he said were always rapidly filled with tourists on days when a ship was in port.
While he said he could not speak for other business operators at the port, he would like the return of the taxis close to his store soon because it was beneficial to both the taxi operators and the guests.
Tahdani opined that drivers could continually be appointed to the area in front of his business by the dispatchers, thus allowing the operations to still be controlled to some degree by the Tourism Authority.
The official way forward
Speaking in National Parliament on October 20, Minister of State with responsibility for Tourism Hon. Richard Skerritt agreed that attention must be paid to the wants of visitors to the Federation.
“We recognise that it was only by delivering consistent, quality service our destination could truly satisfy our customers…especially at this time when consumers have so many attractive vacation options.”
To this end, Skerritt said the ministry and the Tourism Authority have worked assiduously to achieve their “mandate to regulate standards” in the tourism industry, starting with ground transportation.
He added that consultations have been widespread and included input from the many different interest groups of the tourism industry.
Edinborough and other independent taxi operators, however, feel that their voices and opinions as persons on the ground are not being heard or taken seriously by the authorities.
“Persons within the tourism authority saw taxi operators as beggars, even before this law was passed, by the way they speak to, disregard and disrespect us. It is the way taxi operators have always been treated by the authorities. They feel that we need to be put in our place.”
In Edinborough’s opinion, the Prescribed Areas Act needs to be put on hold until the finer details of the legislation could be ironed out in a way that is accommodating to both the vendors and the authorities.
“Generally speaking, the overall experience that has led to the success of the cruise industry is because of operators like us, who make the guests feel welcome and enrich their experience.
“[But] when you create angry drivers, it is angry drivers who will be driving your guests. When a driver is dissatisfied, that dissatisfaction certainly makes itself seen and felt in the service he provides,” he said.
With the Ministry of Tourism projecting that the 2009 tourism season in St. Kitts-Nevis would see a rebound from the dismal 2008 season, there is a palpable tension in the air at Port Zante.
Business owners, tour operators and taxi drivers alike, wonder if the projections would come true or if St. Kitts-Nevis would see a downturn in arrivals similar to what many other Caribbean nations are predicting for the year.
There is little doubt that a boost in revenue would go a long way toward lubricating goodwill between various stakeholders. As it is, however, Edinborough and other taxi drivers feel as if they are being pushed around to appease a cruise industry which drops destinations if operations are not pleasing to them.
“The Tourism Authority toward the end of last season deliberately allowed the situation at the port to degrade to that level so they could crackdown. The deliberately allowed it to happen so they could have justification for this Draconian law that they put in place,” Edinborough said.
He too wonders if he could pay his bills if 2009 were not significantly better than 2008, and he said he is willing to rally his fellow taxi operators if necessary.
“We’re not guinea pigs and we’re not slaves. We are free people in a free market economy, and our voices will be heard. These are people’s livelihoods we are talking about here.”
