The St. Martin Tourism Office has been pretty active of late, reporting recent trips to Miami, Florida, and four Canadian cities. They also met travel agents and media in Martinique to stimulate travel from within the French overseas territories of the Caribbean.
However, unless this newspaper missed something, very little has been heard from the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau (STB) other than the first press conference at their new Front Street location with Frontier Airlines early this month. There was also a symposium on cultural tourism in January.
Meanwhile, other – currently successful – competitors such as the so-called ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) are attending hospitality fairs in North America, Europe and elsewhere. Although a lot of marketing is done online nowadays, showing one’s face abroad and at major global industry events remains important.
Perhaps certain activities are not reported, but in that case STB should do a better job of keeping the local public abreast of its efforts. That too is part of promotion.
It may have something to do with – you guessed it – money, or rather lack of such. Not having an approved budget two months into the year probably doesn’t help either.
St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) has, time and again, pointed out the relative low funding available for this compared to similar destinations. To a certain extent, you get what you pay for.
