Hommage Hotel (formerly Mercure) in Baie Nettle is one of the St. Martin hotels preparing to welcome vacationing tourists again. (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT--The French-side hoteliers association AHSM finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, eager and ready for its hotels to re-open as soon as possible based on a stable health situation, but thwarted by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s unwillingness, AHSM says, to lift restrictions in the overseas territories, the same restrictions that have been relaxed in mainland France.
The first contentious issue was the lifting on June 2 of the ban in France restricting travel within a 100-kilometre distance, but it was not removed for the overseas territories.
Secondly, travel for only compelling and urgent reasons and the 14-day quarantine requirement for transatlantic flights are still maintained for visitors to St. Martin, which AHSM says will deter vacationing tourists from visiting the island. It says it wants answers now and cannot wait until June 22 when Philippe is expected to make more decisions.
AHSM questions the government’s reasoning when St. Martin is in the green zone. The government cites a “fragility” of health facilities in the islands and risk of a rebound in COVID-19 cases. For AHSM, if there is a second wave it will be mass redundancies, not COVID-19 cases.
AHSM’s frustration at not having clarity when hotels are balancing on a knife-edge after a catastrophic three years of disasters that left the hotel industry in dire straits has led to a letter protesting the government’s inequality of treatment.
“It’s hard to give you clear answers when we haven’t got the answers ourselves,” AHSM Executive Director Véronique Legris told The Daily Herald. “We have had many meetings locally and with the national government in the last few days and are hopeful that these restrictions will be lifted quickly.”
That could be accelerated following the letter sent to the government by tourism organisation representatives in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana. AHSM is a co-signatory to the communique protesting the inequality of treatment. The signatories are the Guadeloupe Hotel and Tourism Group, Federation of Associations of Lodging and Tourism Professionals, Union Syndicale des Opérateurs Touristique de Guyane, and the Martinique Tourism Office.
“Legality no longer rhymes with equality and the weakest, as always, will suffer from the inequality of the latest government decrees,” the communique states. “The decree of May 31 drastically restricts freedoms, travel, reopening of businesses and activities in the French West Indies, French Guiana, Mayotte, and Corsica.”
Legris points out that Corsica reacted forcefully to the restrictions by sending a letter to the Prime Minister on June 2 denouncing “surprising, inconsistent, and unequal provisions for air, sea, between France and Corsica.” Three days later, a new decree reversed the restrictive provisions that applied to Corsica, but not to the overseas territories.
“Like Corsica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, and St. Martin are in green zones,” the letter continues. “We don’t understand the government’s segregationist position. Why the unequal treatment? Are we looking at a third category of French people: the people of mainland France, the people in Corsica, and the people in the overseas territories?” the communique questioned. “Will it mean that overseas territories will be under-represented in the National Assembly?
“It should be clear what the real cause of this situation is and who will have to pay the financial consequences. We have been prevented from working by force. Tomorrow we will be forced to dismiss.”
Legris said hotels in St. Martin may be administratively closed, but are ready to open now for tourists.
“All the hotels have been undergoing the training with staff for implementing the sanitary protocols following the national guidelines, so they are ready. But we need a date, we need something to look forward to. Without firm dates it’s impossible to start the marketing promotions that we need to do.”
The Collectivité, which has also written to the Prime Minister to lift the restrictions, is depending on regional tourist activity in July and August to boost the St. Martin economy, and agrees air travel is still too restrictive. Travel between the islands, as well as to and from mainland France, is only authorised for urgent health, family or professional reasons. making it difficult to relaunch regional tourism.
With no tourists, hotels still have to carry out maintenance and landscaping, on top of electricity and water cost. They have the possibility to apply for financial aid from the State in the form of interest-free loans that have to be paid back within two to eight years. Hotels have to pre-qualify and state their revenues for the past three years.
“I feel optimistic that tourists will come back. We are a small attractive territory, and that works in our favour as long as we don’t let coronavirus in again,” Legris adds. “I know the airports are working on the protocols for arrivals and that’s good for protecting the local population as well. It’s just that the tourism industry has to adapt to living with COVID-19.”
