SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) - “When artificial intelligence tells the story of St. Maarten to the world, it must tell the whole story,” says Nzinga Lake, President of the St. Maarten Small Properties Association (SMSPA).
As St. Maarten marks World Tourism Day 2026 today under the theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” Lake says AI is no longer simply a technology conversation. “It is a destination conversation.”
Artificial intelligence is changing how travelers discover destinations, compare accommodations, build itineraries and decide where to eat, shop and explore. “Tomorrow’s traveler may simply ask: “Plan my five-day vacation in St. Maarten.”Within seconds, AI could influence where that visitor sleeps, eats, explores and spends. So what story will it tell about us?” said Lake.
“Will it know our hotels and resorts? Certainly”. But will it know the boutique property tucked away in one of our neighborhoods? The family-owned restaurant visitors return to year after year? Our taxi operators, excursions, shops, artists, cultural experiences and entrepreneurs? Will it understand what makes St. Maarten St. Maarten?” stressed Lake.
Around us, the conversation is already moving. Jamaica is incorporating AI into tourism through a multilingual digital concierge and is developing a real-time tourism insights dashboard.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is using World Tourism Day 2026 to take the region from conversation to application with an AI Tourism Bootcamp. The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association has advanced to version 3.0 of its AI Guidebook series, focusing on practical implementation, workforce readiness and responsible adoption.
Curacao is going even broader, developing a National AI Strategy. “The Caribbean is not waiting for the AI transformation. It is beginning to shape it,” Lake said.
And St. Maarten is not starting from zero. According to the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau, Amazon Alexa devices supporting the St. Maarten Virtual Concierge platform have already been installed in more than 400 privately managed accommodations, including vacation rentals and Airbnb properties. The technology gives visitors access to destination information, including activities, restaurant recommendations and current events, while also providing a channel for important government information. “That tells us something,” Lake said. “We are already using the technology. Now we have to connect the dots.”
Not an AI agenda for one category of accommodation. Not a digital strategy for one tourism sector. A connected tourism technology vision for St. Maarten. Because visitors do not experience St. Maarten in sectors.
A guest may stay at a 15-room property, take a taxi across the island, eat at a locally owned restaurant, go on an excursion, shop in Philipsburg and have dinner at a major resort. To that visitor, that is simply St. Maarten. “One destination. One tourism economy. One digital future,” Lake said.
For SMSPA, that future means strengthening the digital visibility of our tourism businesses, building AI and digital skills, connecting tourism data and using technology to improve the visitor experience.
“The word ‘small’ proudly appears in our name. It describes the size and character of many of our properties. It does not describe our contribution, our ambition or our voice.” But there is another part of this conversation we cannot lose. Our humanity. “AI can tell our story. It cannot become our story,” Lake said.
Technology can recommend a hotel. It can build an itinerary, translate a message and analyze what visitors want. But it cannot welcome a returning guest by name. It cannot replace the local knowledge shared across a restaurant table. And it cannot reproduce that spontaneous conversation that sends a visitor somewhere they never would have discovered online. “Those moments are St. Maarten.”
Last year, SMSPA’s World Tourism Day message focused on human connection. This year, the message evolves:” Use technology to strengthen the connection.”
“On behalf of the St. Maarten Small Properties Association, I wish everyone across St. Maarten and throughout our tourism community a Happy World Tourism Day, our residents, visitors, workers, businesses, entrepreneurs, government, tourism partners and every person who plays a part in the experience we call St. Maarten. Tourism touches all of us, and its future belongs to all of us,” Lake said.
“The future traveler may discover St. Maarten differently. But what they discover should still be unmistakably us. “When artificial intelligence tells the story of St. Maarten to the world, it must tell the whole story.”
