French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement during his recent visit that St. Martin is benefiting from only five per cent of tourism activity compared to its Dutch-side neighbour raises questions. For starters, precisely what that means in terms of revenues, visitor numbers, etc., was not properly explained.
Second, the statement must have been quite demotivating for businesses and residents north of the open border doing their part in trying to restore the economy. It sounded almost as if they were indirectly being blamed for an apparent failure to accomplish such up to now.
To his credit, the President of the Republic of France kept his promise to return a year following the catastrophic passage of Hurricane Irma. He is understandably disappointed over the lack of progress in the recovery also considering the many millions of euros provided by government to support that effort.
But perhaps the message could have focussed on offering a bit of hope to the population, be it not necessarily more money, reserving his criticism for the responsible national, regional and local officials. After all, if the head of state cannot even seem to solve these persistent problems, what may reasonably be expected from the common man?
Finally, it’s somewhat annoying when the impression is created of an again booming St. Maarten while the social reality on the ground tells a different story. Yes, the country has managed to survive relatively well in part thanks to speedy relief aid particularly from the Netherlands, but also the amazing recovery of the cruise industry and payments from the insurance sector that mostly honoured its commitments, allowing for a lot of damage-repair and (re)construction work.
The latter monies are fast drying up, however, which is why it’s so important to quickly get projects being financed from the Dutch-sponsored Recovery Fund managed by the World Bank on track. The hospitality industry and especially its dominant stay-over tourism are still far from pre-Irma levels and will take some time to reach those.
People should always keep in mind too that although the island is shared by two separate nations, it very much feels like a single community that experiences certain aspects of daily life, including natural disasters, together as one. Making – with all due respect – less than positive comparisons between the two is rarely a good or productive idea.
