The Editor,
The Anguillian
Newspaper

Dear Sir,

First Impressions – last longest!

This heading is a universally accepted truth! It is also true to say that the future prosperity of Anguilla, and indeed most Caribbean islands, is heavily dependent upon the tourist industry. This being the case I thought your readers might be interested in hearing about my first impressions when my wife and I arrived on Wednesday of this week.

We arrived at Antigua airport an hour before our flight time as instructed. At immigration there were only a dozen or so people before us in the queue but the only immigration official on duty adopted a sullen and disinterested attitude and procrastinated endlessly. Forty five minutes later we had still not passed through immigration and were in danger of missing our flight and would have done so if the party in front had not invited us to go in front of them.

At Anguilla only three or four people left the flight and when we reached the immigration official we were summarily dismissed because we had not filled out an arrival form.

Having filled in the form we presented ourselves once more to the immigration official who adopted an attitude vering on hostile. Once having passed the immigration test I collected our two heavy suitcases from the carousel and lugged them towards customs. Was there a porter? Was there a baggage trolley? No!

Two old age pensioners were left to carry two heavy suitcase! We wanted to visit Malliouhana Hotel because it is rated the finest hotel in the Caribbean by the respected travel writer Steven B. Stern. Perhaps it is the finest - it is certainly better than Sandy Lane or Carlisle Bay. But I would think twice about coming back simply because of the attitude displayed by a couple of petty jumped up officials.

In the most recent edition of his guide, Mr. Stern rates the St. Geran Hotel in Mauritus as the finest in the world and it would be money well spent if you were to send some of your minor bearocrats there for a lesson in service and customs care.

Yours thoughtfully
G. T. Senior

Home Address:
The Scores
St.Andrews
Scotland

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