The significance of today’s report that The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa has become a Marriott property should not be underestimated. The lack of international hotel brands has long been seen as a weakness in the local tourism product.
In addition, the fact that Marriot Reward Members will now be able to transfer and redeem their points at the resort on Dawn Beach is likely to bring more visitors to the island. After all, people generally love getting a good deal and travellers are certainly no exception.
Also welcome news is that the Dutch and French sides may consider renewing their former cooperation on joint marketing and promotion (see Friday paper). Tour operators once again confirmed that they continue to see the island as one destination and – while details remain to be worked out – selling it together would seem to make a lot of sense.
Important is the message that “The Friendly Island,” although still in demand, is “out of sight” and is at an increasing risk of dropping “out of mind.” A greater presence on the vacation marketplace is said to be desperately needed and combining forces can no doubt contribute to achieving such.
On the other hand, incidents like the past week’s frequent power cuts, especially the one at the airport Thursday evening that caused an American Airlines flight to abort its initial approach before landing safely, are not very helpful. Of course, electricity outages can always occur and most vital entities do have generators for that very reason, but they’ve been happening simply too often.
