BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-TENSIONS between taxi operators and the Tourism Authority over business being carried out at Port Zante heightened over the weekend as the drivers held a brief protest near the cruise passenger arrival hall.
The peaceful protest lasted for roughly 30 minutes on Saturday morning (Nov. 6), and a saw a handful of drivers carrying placards making demands for the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Authority to hold “dialogue with mutual respect”.
The assembled operators told the media that they feel the St. Christopher Tourism Authority Prescribed Areas Act of 2009 has adversely affected their trade and prevented them from making a fair wage in a “free market”.
“They say when you come down here you have to be on your best behaviour, and when you leave here you still have your best behaviour but you’re broke. That’s not working for us,” taxi driver Patrick Browne said.
The main tenet of the Prescribed Areas Act that has irritated the drivers is that they are no longer allowed to approach tourists in Port Zante and offer them their services. The act mandates that a visitor interact with an appointed dispatcher first and be assigned to a driver.
Many of the drivers complained that the dispatchers have not been “selling the island”, thus tour revenue is down.
“You cannot say hi to anybody,” Browne stated. “I mean, this is St. Kitts. We are not accustomed to this kind of thing. We should be able to advertise our business and sell, just like anybody else here.
“You see that most of these shops have their signs out and have a representative to invite people in, but we’re stuck to the back, hoping that somebody wants to go to Frigate Bay.”
Police officers at the port assembled and observed the brief protest, but did not directly interfere.
Other drivers, such as Sylvester ‘Socrates’ Hodge, said that proposals have been put forward to the Tourism Authority for a mode of operation that is suitable to both the drivers and the officials.
One such proposal was signed by roughly 80 drivers last year, Hodge said. Within that document, the drivers outlined a plan to place five taxis along the corridor near the arrival hall and move the dispatcher’s post immediately in front of the hall.
Had this been put in place, the drivers would have agreed to clear the area in front of the arrival hall and the main corridor of Port Zante.
As it stands currently, the disgruntled drivers feel that certain persons and businesses are receiving more work due to favoritism.
“If you come to work daily and you find that a select few are allowed to operate ahead of you and get more work, it creates contention. What they then create out of normal taxi drivers are hustlers,” Hodge said.
While the drivers feel like their complaints are falling on deaf ears, Tourism Authority Communications Manager Saju N’galla said that consultations are ongoing with all of the relevant stakeholders.
“I feel they were consulted. This Act and the new policies going in place are changing every day. We currently have a task force in place that meets with all of the stakeholders.
“The whole idea is to improve the visitors’ experience and achieve our goal of having year round ships,” he stated.
N’galla noted that the tourism product of St. Kitts-Nevis is undergoing rapid changes to become a “high end” market, and not all of the policies implemented in the industry would be fully refined from the start.
“It comes down to getting information out there. We at the Tourism Authority are not trying to cut business, we are trying to increase it.”
He also said that the routes of communication remain open with the taxi operators, and they are encouraged to make their proposals through the channels that are in place.
“A number of proposals are now being looked at by the task force. We are not closing the door on anything. We welcome anyone to come and talk to us.
“We all want to make money, but there is a process to go through. We are not there yet, but we continue to work toward it and we must keep dialoguing,” N’galla stated.
