Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
That Arke will be flying to Princess Juliana International Airport SXM twice weekly from Schiphol in Amsterdam starting next winter (see related story) is obviously good news. After all, attracting more visitors from the Netherlands, but also the rest of Europe so far has proved a challenge for St. Maarten.
That is certainly the case compared to the ABC-islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), which have been very successful in this regard. As a matter of fact, the alternative Arke provided to Royal Dutch airline KLM over there especially concerning fares no doubt played a big role in that development.
To be sure, St. Maarten currently gets three direct KLM-flights per week, but they all stop in Curaçao on the way back, which is not exactly a favourable selling point. There is also the daily Air France connection via Paris, but it obviously involves changing planes at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Moreover, the merger between KLM and Air France meant there is currently no price competition on the route, to the point such even existed before then. The arrival of Arke with what was announced as year-'round service changes that picture and the future rates now announced are an indication of what this might mean.
Still, a word of caution is in order, because Arke already came to St. Maarten in 2008, but stopped because of insufficient demand. This is partly attributed to the service having been only once rather than twice per week and the global economic crisis at the time.
The latter may be correct, but without proper promotion in the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) countries the same easily could happen again. Travel organisation TUI as Arke's owner no doubt will do its part, but the destination's contribution in that sense remains important.
It's almost a bit ironic that the Dutch side at the moment has no official tourism representation in the Netherlands. The contract with public relations (PR) bureau InterReps ran out and was not renewed.
As stated before, the resumption of these kinds of marketing activities is not something that can wait very long. That's why it's reassuring to read in today's paper that the matter is being given the highest priority by Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Claret Connor and hopefully also the new St. Maarten Tourism Authority (STA).
