MARIGOT–St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Interim Director May-Ling Chun indicated at a stakeholder’s press conference at Loterie Farm on Friday an incremental increase in hotel room availability should see more than 2,000 rooms available on the Dutch side by the end of the year, representing 54 per cent of total inventory.
“With everyone moving forward and all stakeholders collaborating we will be doing our utmost best to fill those rooms,” she said.
Based on a hotel survey, in the first quarter, from data compiled as of April 16, 1,000 hotel rooms were available (27 per cent of inventory), the second quarter shows 1,308 will be available (33 per cent), the third quarter 1,700 available (44 per cent) and the fourth quarter 2,145 available (54 per cent). The survey will be updated again on May 16, so the figures may change.
Chun gave stakeholders and media the latest updates in the ongoing rebuilding of the island’s tourism. She was joined by her counterpart, St. Martin Tourism Office Interim Director Aida Weinum, who did likewise for the French side.
The Port of St. Maarten hosted 502,000 cruise passengers from January 2018 to May 3, 2018, with 177 cruise calls. Home-porting will resume in December 2018 with 14-16 calls and 20 per cent of those passengers will stay over three days before or after their cruise. She noted the Port’s cargo operation is “stable.”
With regard to Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), up to April 2018, the airport is seeing traffic of more than 12,000 seats per week and 66 per cent of markets served are back at the airport. PJIA attended the Routes conference in February 2018 and gave recovery updates to the airlines while discussing marketing efforts.
On the rebuilding of the PJIA terminal building, demolition work is almost complete. Rebuilding will resume after the hurricane season ends. Bidding processes will start soon. Repairs to the roof are currently ongoing. As of April 4, the airport started collecting data surveys in collaboration with the Tourist Bureau and the market research department.
The airlines have also resumed service to St. Maarten: United on April 14 and WestJet on April 29, both with full planes; Spirit Airlines resumed weekly flights on May 5 with bigger aircraft; and Copa Airlines will resume with four flights per week as of June 2. A new airline from the Dominican Republic, Air Century, will start flights to St. Maarten three times a week from June 4.
Representatives of the airport, St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) and the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunication (TEATT) visited American Airlines recently to discuss the opening up of the Charlotte, North Carolina, hub. Chun said this will happen in the near future.
The Chamber of Commerce has been working diligently to bring back business to Philipsburg and working with the Port and PJIA to make sure all objectives are met. The Chamber is also partnering with the Statistics Department to do economic surveys in the business community. And in connection with the memorandum of understanding (MOU) both tourism offices are collecting data.
Weinum said that due to the largely devastated hotel sector on the French side, only about 200 hotel rooms are currently available (or 350, taking guesthouses and villas into account) but that will rise to 500-600 by December 2018.
“We are in contact with hotels, guesthouses, and villa agencies to keep track of their room availability. With all accommodations combined we hope to get up to 700 rooms,’ she said.
La Plantation in Orient Bay and Sol y Luna in Mont Vernon are open. Petit Hotel and L’Esplanade are to reopen in June, Grand Case Beach Club to partially open in October and Belmond La Samanna in December 2018. The first phase of rebuilding the Orient Beach restaurants (Collectivité) will start in mid-July and the second phase in November 2018.
The “lolos” in Marigot are to have a new setting and these are to be delivered in November.
Weinum said that up to April 2018 Air Antilles and Air Caraïbes had increased their flights to three per day from Guadeloupe and Martinique due to the demand from many passengers wanting to get to North America and Europe. However, this traffic has now decreased by 22 per cent as more flights became available at PJIA.
She said the two airports are sharing information in terms of waterproofing, fencing, and security. Bids have been launched for the parking and security operations at Grand Case Airport. A new hangar for small planes currently under construction will be completed in June. The runway extension project is expected to be completed in 2020.
The French-side hotel association AHSM has re-formed with Patrice Seguin as President. The same goes for the restaurant association, and a guesthouse association is in the works.
She said the Chamber of Commerce has been very supportive to the business community. A training course for taxi drivers is to start next month. Having Wi-Fi in a taxi and the ability to pay by credit will soon become a reality.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/76523-2-145-hotel-rooms-forecast-to-be-available-by-end-of-year
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