Departing US Consul General to the Dutch Caribbean Allen Greenberg had two basic messages for St. Maarten ahead of his retirement: Get vaccinated and fix the airport.
No matter how you look at it, these are essential ingredients for a sustainable recovery from the unprecedented corona-related crisis. It has been more than 3½ years since Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) was badly damaged by the hurricanes of September 2017 and a fully restored main gateway obviously remains key to reviving the island’s tourism economy.
The latter has finally begun in earnest with encouraging visitor arrivals mostly due to pent-up travel demand in North America. There is the prospect of a relatively favourable summer, but current passenger numbers should certainly not be taken for granted.
The COVID-19 situation and consequently the dominant local hospitality industry’s immediate future remain vulnerable, especially with the rapidly spreading Delta variant. The good news is that approved vaccines are also effective against mutations of the virus.
In addition, they have widely been proven safe and are easily available free of charge and with a “no question asked” policy regarding immigration status, etc. There is thus no valid excuse not to protect oneself and others from health risks as well as more socioeconomic misery.
