Tuesday’s front page carried some ominous tidings, as the average hotel occupancy in June dropped to 53% from 61% a year earlier, with the fewest room nights used in a decade. While high airfares may be partly to blame, Aruba reported 73%.
St. Maarten counted slightly more available units last month with 3,368 than it did in June 2022 with 3,315, hardly a big enough difference to explain the decline. By comparison, in pre-pandemic 2019 the rate was 75% but with only 2,754 units, significantly less.
That the current inventory is nearing the total of before Hurricane Irma with 3,963 during the same month in 2017 can be considered proof the country has just about completely recovered from the storm’s devastating impact in terms of visitor accommodations. At the same time, it creates a need for additional “heads-in-beds” too.
One factor in these somewhat worrisome figures is no doubt the growth of private and individual short-term vacation rentals. St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) up to now identified 1,303 such units comprising 3,357 rooms, compared to respectively 3,386 and 4,262 among more traditional resorts.
Numbers don’t lie. Like it or not, this sector has become a major player in the local tourism economy and it’s high time to regulate such activities especially regarding taxation so they can contribute their fair share to the collective burden and in the interest of a level playing field.
A possible silver lining is that arrivals might thus not be down as much and guests continue visiting, just often staying elsewhere than maybe they used to.
In any case, this has obviously not been the only destination confronted with effects of so-called home-sharing. What sets other, similar Caribbean islands doing better apart is usually a relatively bigger budget for promotion and marketing.
When it comes to the latter, money talks.
