Dear Editor,
Please allow me to express my concern about the deterioration of service on St. Maarten.
As a St. Maartener, I have been an unfortunate witness to the slow deterioration of service on the island, and while I have yet to come to grips with what has happened, I can only imagine what our guests must think of us.
We have to recognize that we are a service-oriented economy. The tourists that visit our island come with a promise of a wonderful vacation experience, to get value for their hard-earned money and to leave our shores with memories they can’t wait to share with their loved-ones. Unfortunately many of our guests are met with a broken promise.
We need to wake up and realize our island is slowing devolving. Who are we to blame?
Perhaps the Government is to blame for not having a strict immigrant integration policy to ensure all immigrants understand and accept what our island expects of them as residents. Immigrants either integrate and respect our way and quality of life, or catch the next flight out.
Or is it our educational system, K-12, which lacks a basic hospitality curriculum so students understand the core principles of our economy when they graduate from high school.
Or maybe it is our antiquated labour laws that protect employees and not the economy that drives employment. Our labour laws do not promote a competitive labour environment and shackles businesses with poor or underperforming employees.
Or do we blame ourselves for being so indifferent that we accept such subpar performance.
There is much blame to go around, but rather than point fingers, we need to have a long-term plan to improve our service and Tourism industry. If we don’t do so, and soon, we may as well change our moniker to: “Sint Maarten – The Mediocre Island.”
Name withheld at author’s request.
