Passport Req'd for Barbados Soon!

The following is from the Barbados Nation newspaper:

Passport, please! - Sunday 21, December-2003
by Tony Best

FROM NEXT MARCH, all visitors to Barbados will be required to travel
with a passport.

At a time of heightened global security, Barbados is boosting its
safety measures by introducing this measure.

From March 1, the practice of North Americans coming here on a
driver?s licence and a birth certificate will end.

Rob McChlery, Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) senior business
development manager in the United States, told the Sunday Sun the BTA
was informing tour operators, airlines, travel agencies and others
in the ?travel trade? that the move was being made in the interest
of safety and security.

?We currently allow American and Canadian citizens to enter Barbados
without a valid passport, but on presentation of a photo
identification card, which is usually a driver?s licence along with a
birth certificate,? he said.

The policy was introduced in the early 1970s in order to boost tourist
arrivals. Since then, most Caribbean destinations have introduced it.

?This practice is going to end on March 1. We don?t believe it is
going to present us with any great difficulty because research has
shown that less than one per cent of arrivals from North American
countries travel to Barbados without a valid passport.

?The figure indicates that North American visitors have already become
accustomed to travelling with a passport as a means of identification
to get not simply into Barbados, but any country. That approach has
become even more necessary after the events of September 11, 2001,?
said McChlery.

?It?s clear that Barbados, like its neighbours and many other states,
must place security issues higher on their list of priorities. After
all, both the United States and Canada and most airlines now demand
that each passenger should have a valid passport.?

Orrin - www.orrin.org/
Linux by SuSE... a world without Windows

On 22 Dec 2003 18:11:09 -0800, (Orrin) posted:

The following is from the Barbados Nation newspaper:

FROM NEXT MARCH, all visitors to Barbados will be required to travel
with a passport.

And will be optically or electronically read. What we will have is all
country's immigration and airline systems communicating people's coming and
goings between them. Then they can control for people not arriving in the
country they have declared as their destination. No diversions. Controlled
travel.

Don donwiss at panix.com.

Don Wiss wrote:

On 22 Dec 2003 18:11:09 -0800, (Orrin) posted:


The following is from the Barbados Nation newspaper:


FROM NEXT MARCH, all visitors to Barbados will be required to travel


with a passport.



And will be optically or electronically read. What we will have is all
country's immigration and airline systems communicating people's coming and
goings between them. Then they can control for people not arriving in the
country they have declared as their destination. No diversions. Controlled
travel.

Don donwiss at panix.com.


You say that like it's a bad thing, or really a change... If someone
says they're going to 'x' and winds up in "y", I'd be suspicious.
Honestly, I can't see any valid reason. Even long distance cruisers (on
small sailboats) get hassled if their papers didn't have "here" as their
intended destination.

Your comings and goings are tracked by the airlines anyway. No, the feds
(in whatever country) don't have direct access, but the airlines'
systems are better connected than just about any two countries, much
less all of them.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/