St Maarten tourism plans big to promote destinations\, products

St Maarten tourism plans big to promote destinations, products

Published on : Friday, February 8, 2019

 

However, the “source of funding mechanism” still has to be established and should come in the third quarter of this year to coincide with increased room inventory, said Minister Stuart Johnson to Parliament’s TEATT committee on Wednesday.

 

Government will conduct an online assessment of accommodation booking sites such as VRBO, Airbnb, Home Away and Flip Key to determine more ways to generate revenue.

 

Johnson said the travelling market has changed with more people seeking to stay in condos and villas.

 

www.vacationstmaarten.com requires revamping. It currently serves as a landing page that links to Facebook.com. NAf. 20,000 has been allocated in the draft 2019 budget to upgrade and modernise the site.

 

A photoshoot with local photographers and models to create stock photo content for the destination will be launched this month with a budget of NAf. 35,000.

 

The country’s marketing representatives in the United States are up for review. Their performance has been noted as “weak.” Similarly, the country’s public relations firm in Europe has also had a weak performance review and the contract will not be renewed. An exit strategic has to be discussed with the company and government, as the contract ends in October.

 

Apart from the key markets of the United States and Canada, Johnson said focus will be on South America. A joint marketing approach is planned together with the French side and Anguilla in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Around NAf. 279,000 has been set aside for this.

 

To encourage more events and boost promotion, tourism funds have been committed to St. Maarten Heineken Regatta (NAf. 350,000), SXM Music Festival NAf. 180,000 and American University of the Caribbean Medical School Disaster Medicine Conference NAf. 45,000, among others.

 

A total of NAf. 300,000 has been set aside for a tourism training and certification programme to ensure each worker on the tourism frontline is knowledgeable and equipped to promote the destination and to meet and exceed visitor expectation.

 

The Tourism Ministry also has plans to extend sailing months into June and July with heavy promotion, and to carry out a multi-annual campaign to extend the tourist season in general, local tourism awareness campaigns and customer service training. These and other related plans will be funded from an allocation of NAf. 473,000.