TUI being satisfied with St. Maarten as destination (see Thursday paper) is obviously good news. While it combines the flights from Amsterdam with Curaçao – as does KLM – and a considerable number of passengers stay on board the plane to travel on when
it lands at Princes Juliana International Airport SXM, TUI’s twice weekly service is certainly a welcome addition to the European airlift.
Sales for the next winter and the 2017 summer have just started, confirming the carrier is here to stay at least for now. That’s reassuring, because a weekly flight started by TUI’s airline predecessor ArkeFly was halted after a relatively short period in 2006 mainly due to economic reasons and low demand.
The current situation seems much more stable, although St. Maarten is considered relatively expensive compared to Curaçao. Nevertheless, this two-nation island was said to be special and “absolutely” have enough to offer.
At the same time, the message that increased funding is direly needed to promote the product in the Netherlands is also loud and clear. The Dutch side’s lack of a marketing representative there since two years ago remains a point of concern as well.
Another expressed wish that should be noted is for the construction of new resorts and apartments, while some existing properties could use an upgrade. Projects such as that of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), which includes a hotel, are therefore very important.
All in all, the additional airlift from Europe is helping to diversify the source markets of the local tourism economy. That the latter could be crucial was proven after the terrorist attacks of 9-11 on the US, when travel from the North American region as the main supplier of visitors dropped sharply for a while.
Of course, nobody in their right mind would ever want to see anything like that happen again, but it’s always good not to put “all eggs in one basket.”
