The landings. The seashores. The eating places. The leisure. The sheer friendliness. St Maarten has all the time been one of many Caribbean’s most beloved locations, and now the island is seeing extra guests than ever.
That included greater than 600,000 stopover guests in 2024, in line with new Tourism Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten, who caught up with Caribbean Journal on the current Routes Americas convention in Nassau.
The renewed inflow of tourists comes because the island simply hit one other milestone, with the completion of the arrival and departure terminals on the Princess Juliana Worldwide Airport, which was named Caribbean Airport of the 12 months within the current Caribbean Journey Awards.
It’s been an extended journey for the airport and the vacation spot, out of the storms of 2017 after which right into a pandemic.
“We’re extraordinarily completely satisfied that, after so a few years, the airport is lastly achieved,” she stated.
Probably the most intriguing improvement is that the island is contemplating a push to implement US Customs pre-clearance on the airport, which might imply vacationers can undergo US passport management and immigration in St Maarten after which take the equal of a home flight again to the US — one thing simply two locations, Aruba and Nassau, have achieved.
Earlier than that call, the airport goes to launch a carrying capability examine, she stated.
“At that time we’ll determine if we do want t develop our airport, after which we take it from there. Can we wish to do pre-clearance? It’s one thing we’re contemplating, after which we take it from there.”
All this progress means there’s extra to consider for the island, from new additions on the airport to improvements within the customer expertise.
The latter, Heyliger-Marten instructed Caribbean Journal, consists of turning Philipsburg into “extra of an leisure capital.”
“Nobody is wanting only for purchasing anymore,” she stated. “Folks need leisure. We’ve one of the best nightlife, we now have one of the best meals. We wish to capitalize on that, and we wish to rework the best way our capital is behaving. We wish to create one thing new, one thing revolutionary on the town.”
The expansion for the island has been sturdy and numerous — and one other 5 accommodations are at the moment in improvement. On the aviation facet, St Maarten is attracting new routes from markets like Minneapolis to a different more and more vital supply marketplace for the island: Canada.
“We don’t speak about Canada usually sufficient,” stated Michael Mother or father, industrial director on the airport, who joined Heyliger-Marten as a part of the St Maarten delegation.
“We now have 4 completely different carriers now flying from Canada,” he stated. “We’re additionally exploring different hubs within the Midwest.” Then there’s the more and more vital intra-regional market, anchored by native service Winair, which serves greater than 30 completely different locations within the area, Mother or father famous, reinforcing the airport’s place as a vital Caribbean air hub.
“Winair is definitely our second highest passenger service after American Airways,” he stated.
When an island will get well-liked, there are a number of challenges — on the one hand, it’s important to maintain the expansion; alternatively, it’s important to handle it. A giant a part of that, the Minister stated, is a deeper understanding of the significance of tourism to the financial system.
“We’ve to guard the product,” she stated. “That is our bread and butter and that is how we defend it.”
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