Last night’s Causeway Jump-Up got things going for this year’s Carnival activities, although the season of revelry doesn’t really start until after the Easter holidays and particularly once Carnival Village is opened mid-April. When it was recently reported that the celebrations might be off due to a delay in Government’s NAf.
350,000 subsidy, some commented that with persons still homeless or living under tarpaulins as well as losing jobs and income there were greater priorities and necessities for which the money should be used instead.
Such a reaction is understandable considering the present dire social conditions on the ground. However, it’s not that simple.
Carnival is more than three weeks of concerts, pageants and parades. It has also become an important part of the island’s tourism product.
Of course, people get to party their hearts out, which is anyhow good to relieve stress especially in light of – for many – life-changing and devastating experiences just over six months ago. Keeping their biggest cultural happening from them now more than ever could have an undesirable negative psychological and even demotivating effect on the population facing a tough recovery period.
But the main reason not to cancel the festival is that it brings visitors, who are currently in very short supply, to drive the hard-hit local hospitality industry. Like the Heineken Regatta organisation, SCDF therefore wasted no time in announcing soon after the catastrophic passage of Hurricane Irma that the event would continue.
A market analysis based on the 2013 edition revealed that almost a quarter of attendees were non-residents. Most came from elsewhere in the Caribbean, but about 25 per cent also from North America.
That year hotels in Philipsburg registered a room occupancy of 89 per cent during Carnival, while Sonesta Maho Beach recorded a bump to 68 per cent and the overall average had been estimated at 61 per cent.
The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB) indicated in August 2014 that air arrivals for the first five months of that year grew by 7.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2013, with the North American market up 11 per cent. This was largely attributed to a strong month of April that saw arrivals increase by 12 per cent in general and 44 per cent for the region, while room occupancy in Philipsburg rose to 91 per cent.
In May 2017 STB reported that year’s room occupancy prior to Carnival had been 85 per cent but surged to 92 per cent during the last two weeks of April. The reality is that in terms of the economic significance of Carnival, these numbers speak for themselves.
