Hassle for Travellers

I find it a big hassle to go through the hassle that the authorities in many countries impose on travellers, including people who make short trips to their countries.

Examples are:

a) Immigration forms asking for a lot of unnecessary details

b) Difficult to fill in the forms, due to bad spacing

c) Duplicate forms for immigration and custom control

d) Health declaration forms, in the wake of H1N1

It is clear that the authorities do not have any use for the information that is being asked. They hardly look at it. Even if the information is not entered correctly, they do not bother.

I do not know why they wish to impose the unnecessary hassle on the travellers, as they really want to encourage tourism into their country. It seems that one department is acting against another department.

Although Singapore has less hassle for travellers, I find that visitors are still required to fill up a form to collect tourism statistics. It should be possible to collect the statistics from other sources, rather than to complete a detailed form.

These hassles come on top of the security checks that are imposed on travellers. Perhaps the department in charge of tourism in the respective countries should coordinate with their immigration, custom and health departments, to see what is really necessary and useful.