Sunwing resuming weekly flights from both Montreal and Toronto at the end of February (see related story) is obviously good news. It comes on the heels of the also welcome announcement that Anglo-German travel giant TUI will again be offering tour packages for St. Maarten starting November 1 with the three weekly KLM flights out of the Netherlands.
These will be based on accommodations at Holland House Beach Hotel in Philipsburg, Divi Little Bay Beach Resort, L’Esperance in Cay Hill and La Plantation at Orient Bay. To be added to this list – when they become available – are Secrets Hotel and Spa (former Rui Palace) at Anse Marcel in the third quarter of 2019, adults-only Sonesta Ocean Point Resort (November 15, 2018) and all-inclusive Sonesta Maho Beach Resort, Casino and Spa (February 1, 2019).
The latter two properties were also mentioned by Sunwing, which did not go into the future of its own Great Bay Beach Resort that was badly damaged by Hurricane Irma and has since been demolished. One reason may be the Canadian company’s still-pending application to government for a soft loan of US $43 million from the Dutch Recovery Fund as well as fiscal and other incentives for rebuilding strong enough to withstand category 5 hurricanes in the future.
To what extent those requests can be honoured remains to be seen, but Finance Minister Perry Geerlings told Parliament of a general initiative to exempt main and subcontractors involved in large construction projects from turnover tax payments. Hopefully that prospect will expedite Sunwing’s plans for a 450-room Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino confirmed by Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Stuart Johnson.
There is little doubt that the island could badly use such an impulse for its tourism economy now more than ever, so what is both possible and reasonable should be done to help make it a reality.
