People particularly in the hospitality industry are getting increasingly concerned over the wave of bad publicity St. Maarten has been getting especially online because of ongoing energy shortages. While it seemed the worst was over, last weekend’s (see Tuesday newspaper) longer- and more-frequent-than-lately power cuts due to unforeseen circumstances didn’t exactly help in that regard.
Let’s face it, tourists who are affected by outages generally won’t be happy and may complain. The vacation experience is simply impacted in a less-than-positive manner.
This destination has thankfully been blessed with many loyal repeat visitors, who often tend to be somewhat understanding for local problems, despite possibly suffering their own related inconvenience. It also appears the biggest immediate crisis has again passed after two engines of utilities provider GEBE were quickly put back into operation.
However, load-shedding is likely to continue for at least a month, before 20 new generators on their way to the island are up and running. Until then everyone, which regrettably includes guests, will just have to make the best out of a bad situation.
