It seems St. Maarten will be back to 55 per cent of its pre-Hurricane Irma room inventory in January 2019 and 60 per cent at the end of the first quarter. There is no reason to doubt this estimate given by Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Stuart Johnson (see related story).
Mind you, that will still only be a little more than half the former capacity well over a year later. It’s also important to point out that several large resorts won’t resume normal operations for at least another six to 12 months.
The situation on the French side is probably worse, although several major visitor accommodations there are set to come back on line for the fast-approaching high season as well. Today’s report on a 40-unit hotel in Concordia is an encouraging development in that sense.
The same can be said for Wednesday night’s reopening of the rebuilt Casino Royale, to be followed by adults-only Sonesta Ocean Point and family-friendly Sonesta Maho Beach, both with all-inclusive products. One can expect the return of other properties and condos in the area to accelerate once that’s the case.
At the same time various new projects are underway, including in Cupecoy, mostly due to the presence of the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) medical school. Seen from that angle, the prospect for growth apparently still exists, in addition to restoring what was already there.
If roughly half a billion euros available to the Dutch-sponsored Recovery and Resilience Fund managed by the World Bank is used well and helps keep the economy going pending the full revival of particularly stayover tourism, the destination’s future holds enough promise.
