Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Although the introduction of a visitor health fee proposed by Health Minister Cornelius de Weever (see related story) seems a bit "out of the blue" it shouldn't be discarded outright. Health-related services obviously are targeted in the first place toward local residents, but it does happen that guests make use of them.
As a tourism destination, maintaining quality medical facilities is important, especially for vacationers who may suffer already from some type of condition. Knowing that adequate care would be available to them when required could indeed make the difference between coming or not.
The minister mentioned a US $1 levy on airline tickets and/or per cruise ship passenger. However, the latter are here for only one day while stay-over tourists usually spend a week or more on the island, so requesting the same amount for both probably wouldn't be fair.
It also must be pointed out that cruise lines already pay a head-tax to which a security charge was added not too long ago and that the industry is extremely price-competitive. Further raising the cost of ship calls for this reason can have consequences, as experience in other countries has shown.
But one also ought to be careful regarding travellers by plane. For example, a recent proposal to change the timeshare tax structure already led to objections from within the sector, despite the fact that it involved a relatively small increase.
Moreover, airfare to St. Maarten isn't exactly cheap to begin with, so that has to be kept in mind as well. Still, $1 to ensure a tourist can access local medical services if needed in truth does not seem too much to ask.
Of course, the suggestion comes ahead of the August 29 parliamentary election in which De Weever is a number two candidate and the campaign promises being made by others include a newly-expanded state-of-the-art hospital. However, that does not automatically mean the minister's idea has no merit.
