As the island goes through its traditional low season with business down even more than usual due to the lingering effects of Hurricane Irma, there are continued hopeful indications that the economy is slowly but surely recovering. These encouraging signs for the future include today’s report that Dutch carrier KLM plans to resume direct service both to and from St. Maarten – rather than the current return leg via Curaçao – by November 2019.
For one thing, it means all passengers on those aircraft will disembark at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), instead of more than half – about 60 per cent – traveling on to the so-called ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) as is now the case. Of course, the positive impact on incoming traffic will also depend on the frequency and planes used in terms of number of seats.
But it’s first and foremost a matter of convenience. Worldwide vacationers tend to prefer non-stop flights to and from their destination especially when these are relatively long, to lose as little precious vacation time as possible in getting there.
However, pricing is a factor too. It should simply not be so that tickets to St. Maarten are more expensive than for the other two Dutch Caribbean countries when the actual distance covered in their case is even greater.
In addition, to truly tap into the potential that tourism from the Netherlands and its neighbours offers, as the ABC islands have clearly done, St. Maarten will need structural marketing and promotion in that part of Europe. In the recent past, particularly payment issues led to undesirable lapses and unnecessary confusion.
Consistency is everything.
