Already the 17th edition of the St. Martin/St. Maarten Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART) kicks off at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort on Tuesday after a one-year hiatus due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. More than 100 businesses have registered for the three-day gathering that brings together wholesalers, tour operators and suppliers of the Northeastern Caribbean hospitality industry.
The event organised by the local hotel associations and tourist bureaus of both the Dutch and French sides of the island is not directly intended to specifically attract visitors to the island, but rather to promote travel to and within the region as a whole. There will be participation from the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Barth’s, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Curaçao and Bonaire, but also Panama, the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The hub function of Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) for surrounding territories is an important reason for hosting the tradeshow. To keep and expand this role, a full restoration of the terminal to its former glory planned to start by the end of this year is obviously crucial.
SMART is also a great opportunity to showcase the island’s potential as destination for conventions and other forms of group travel. This type of incentive tourism can often help drive arrival numbers during normally slow periods outside of the traditional high season.
However, all these efforts make little sense if the experience of guests is not optimal. There is a letter on today’s opinion pages by an Austrian journalist which raises questions in that regard.
He wrote of extremely high prices for hotel rooms and no service “but only cheating and lying.” Nobody allegedly answered his questions to the tourism boards before and during the trip either.
This is just an individual case, of course, but there may be others who feel the same way and it’s certainly not the kind of publicity one would desire. Ultimately, the perceived quality and value of the product are what matters most.
