Bob Morrell, managing director of Reality Training asks if the US government’s desire to protect its borders could impact on tourists’ desire to visit.
I first visited the US in 1989. I flew with Pan Am and entered the country at Washington Dulles. In those days, I needed a return ticket and also a letter from my then employer, explaining I was due back at work at a certain date. The official at the passport gate was slightly suspicious but after a few questions and my very English accented denials that I was planning on staying longer, I was allowed into the country. The truth was, had things been different I would have stayed on a lot longer, as I was chasing a holiday romance across the pond, which, like so many of my youth, ended in tears and acrimony.
Since then I have visited the US well over 20 times, mostly for work. I can safely say, on all of those visits, my arrival in the ‘land of the free’ has been severely marred by a considerable wait at the passport desks, or as it is called, US Border Security. There never seems to be enough officials working in the booths and each ‘transaction’ – the check of the passport, the finger print thing, and presumably checking I have a current ESTA – takes a few minutes per person. Most recently, on arrival at JFK we stood in line for over two and a half hours. We were only over for a couple of nights. The ‘snaking’ queue meandered across this faceless area at a snail’s pace, as two passport officials took their time, rigorously checking each person. In front of us were a group of school children arriving for a ski trip. After an eight-hour flight, they had to endure this unnecessary delay before a further four-hour transfer into the mountains.
As I stood quietly fuming, I thought back over my previous visits – Miami last year for the Advantage conference – that was a good hour’s wait as I recall, Atlanta before that – lovely airport, but what a wait. Minneapolis, same, Seattle, same, JFK same, Newark, same. You get so excited about visiting the States – it’s such a great place to go – you forget the wait. Then you arrive again and think – ‘Oh yes, this is why I don’t rush back here as often as I’d like.’ My extended family often come to Florida for holidays and cruises. Even they, in their advancing years, never fail to reference the ‘long wait’ at passport control and try to make light of this common issue. I don’t see how you can make light of it. I had a private transfer waiting to whisk us off to the Big Apple, I may as well have booked an ambulance considering how I felt once we actually got through. The thousand people in our queue were all moaning about it and we all voiced our incredulity that this, the most powerful nation on earth, the richest, the land of the Statue of Liberty, the place where they first sent men to the moon from, could not devise a better system for quickly vetting arrivals who are there ultimately to give a much needed boost to their economy.
When we finally reached the smart, armed and braided officer, we mentioned the wait. ‘Have you had to wait that long?’ he asked, without a hint of sarcasm. If he hadn’t been carrying a loaded piece, I would have very energetically, put him right. Instead, fearful of arrest, body search and ultimately, imprisonment, I decided to keep quiet. Thankfully, our transfer was still waiting for us.
Now, I know security is essential, of course it is. This is about balance. We now all have to complete an ESTA, so the United States knows far more about all their arrivals than they previously did. Many countries still require you to get a visa from the US Embassy in advance of travel, so again, they’ve met you already. I’m all for putting measures in place to make us more secure. At the same time, this experience is the biggest negative and in time, visitors will think, ‘I don’t want the hassle’ and go somewhere less stringent.
I’m sure some people would have had more seamless experiences and some may even know ways to bypass some of this, in which case please tell us! But in a world of change, travelling into a country that seems more suspicious and is wanting to create new barriers of all kinds to the outside world, I hope they realise that in their desire to protect, they are also affecting their friends’ desire to visit.