Although the United States Government was inclined to extend the period for public comments on a new travel advisory, an official at the United States Embassy said that does not mean that an eventual extension of the January 1, 2006 implementation date will be granted.
Public comments are being accepted for an additional two months.
“I would not leap to that conclusion,” Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Robert Witajewski told the Bahama Journal on Wednesday. “What this extension of this period of comment means is that the Washington agencies involved are very much interested in hearing what the impact of the proposed implementation date is going to be on various individuals.”
Tourism officials here are worried that a new policy that would require everyone entering or reentering the United States from The Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean to produce passports could adversely affect the industry. Some officials have expressed concerns that visitor arrivals could decline in the short term.
Once the comments have been submitted, officials in Washington D.C. are expected to review and consolidate them before making a final decision on the rules and regulations.
As it now stands, by January 1, 2006, persons entering the United States from the Bahamas, elsewhere in the Caribbean, Central and South America would be required to present valid passports or another secure, accepted document like a border crossing card in the case of Canada and Mexico.
On January 1, 2007, that policy would take effect for all air and sea travel to and from Mexico and Canada and January 1, 2008 for all air, sea and land border crossings.
The Bahamas Hotel Association has written to U.S. Ambassador John Rood and Foreign Affairs Minister, Fred Mitchell to request that the implementation date for The Bahamas be on par with that of Mexico and Canada.
U.S. citizens re-entering the United States from those two countries have until 2008 to get passports.
BHA President, Earl Bethel has argued that without sufficient time to educate the traveling public, coupled with the time required to secure a passport, the implementation date would have a detrimental impact on visitor arrivals.
Such a move, he said would also have a corresponding negative effect on the industryﾴs revenue, government revenue and employment levels in the tourism sector.
Plans are already underway to launch an educational campaign aimed at sensitizing current visitors to The Bahamas of the impending change. In doing this, the Ministry of Tourism has expressed confidence that by keeping travelers aware far in advance of any change, any adverse effect on tourism in the country “will be negligible.”
As it stands, U.S. citizens as well as many residents of other countries in the Western Hemisphere are not required to present a passport to enter or re-enter the United States when traveling within the Western Hemisphere.
In fact, an estimated 60 million Americans – about 20 percent of the nation’s population – have passports.
According to officials, the goal of the new travel requirement is to strengthen border security and expedite international travel, an initiative Mr. Witajewski said most observers recognize as a good one.
“The more secure we make our borders, the more positive the identification that people have, the less easy it is to come up with fraudulent documents, the safer The Bahamas, the United States and every place else is going to be,” the Deputy Chief of Mission said.
“So the debate is not whether we need such a step, but how we go about implementing it so that we have the maximum amount of positive benefits for the minimum amount of costs and this is the issue that Washington is eager to hear suggestions on.”
U.S. Embassy officials have stressed that ultimately, all documents used for entry to the United States are expected to include biometrics that can be used to authenticate the document and verify identity.
Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
