Letter Of The Week Rudest Passport Control Officer
We are two English couples, travelling separately to enjoy a two-night stay on board the Desert Express. Fares paid for, flights to Windhoek booked, first night's accommodation booked and paid for. Just three weeks prior to departure, we are informed (and no reason given) that the trip has been cancelled. At this point, we have spent around US$20 000 per couple. This was supposed to be one of the highlights of our holiday.
As the flights were booked, we had little choice but to fly to Windhoek. Upon landing, I was greeted by the rudest passport control officer imaginable. While all other couples were seen together, she shouted that I must stand alone. I had not entered the road name of the apartment I booked, and since I was unable to get online, I was unable to access it. I was shouted at, spoken to like some illiterate child, forced to stand for 20 minutes after the entire plane had cleared, and then had my passport thrown at me by this embittered woman.
What a welcome to Namibia!
Since our friends and ourselves had not received a refund from Desert Express (paid for three months earlier), we then spent three hours at the Windhoek station on the Friday trying to sort matters out, which I am pleased to say, were finally resolved. This was possibly because we would not leave until we had our money back in our account.
If this is the sort of welcome offered to tourists, shame on you! We are exactly the sort of people you should be welcoming with open arms. We travel to not only enhance our lives, but we put money into local economies by using restaurants, visiting sites of interest, staying in hotels and apartments. With the taxi drivers trying to rip us off, to add insult to injury, these are four people who are delighted to leave a country we will never visit again.
Tourism is a major part of your economy, something you need to increase annually, but how you treat visitors needs to be addressed. But, I wonder, is anybody remotely interested?
Patricia Reay London
We are two English couples, travelling separately to enjoy a two-night stay on board the Desert Express. Fares paid for, flights to Windhoek booked, first night's accommodation booked and paid for. Just three weeks prior to departure, we are informed (and no reason given) that the trip has been cancelled. At this point, we have spent around US$20 000 per couple. This was supposed to be one of the highlights of our holiday.
As the flights were booked, we had little choice but to fly to Windhoek. Upon landing, I was greeted by the rudest passport control officer imaginable. While all other couples were seen together, she shouted that I must stand alone. I had not entered the road name of the apartment I booked, and since I was unable to get online, I was unable to access it. I was shouted at, spoken to like some illiterate child, forced to stand for 20 minutes after the entire plane had cleared, and then had my passport thrown at me by this embittered woman.
What a welcome to Namibia!
Since our friends and ourselves had not received a refund from Desert Express (paid for three months earlier), we then spent three hours at the Windhoek station on the Friday trying to sort matters out, which I am pleased to say, were finally resolved. This was possibly because we would not leave until we had our money back in our account.
If this is the sort of welcome offered to tourists, shame on you! We are exactly the sort of people you should be welcoming with open arms. We travel to not only enhance our lives, but we put money into local economies by using restaurants, visiting sites of interest, staying in hotels and apartments. With the taxi drivers trying to rip us off, to add insult to injury, these are four people who are delighted to leave a country we will never visit again.
Tourism is a major part of your economy, something you need to increase annually, but how you treat visitors needs to be addressed. But, I wonder, is anybody remotely interested?
Patricia Reay London
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