Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
MARIGOT--Kate Richardson was officially named Director of St. Martin Tourism Office as of April 1 at a press conference Friday afternoon. She had assumed the position of Interim Director since the departure of former director Silviane John.
President Jeanne Rogers-Vanterpool said she was very proud that an employee of the office has been promoted within.
"Kate has been part of the staff for seven years and has a lot of experience," Rogers-Vanterpool said. "In addition she has a Masters in Tourism Marketing. From the bottom of my heart I'm very happy for her and wish her the best."
Some 20 candidates applied for the position of Director. A pre-selection committee chose six from that number which was then reduced to three final candidates by the Comité de Direction.
Richardson (37) was formerly in charge of marketing and communications.
"I'm very happy to be at the head of a young team," she said. "There have been ups and downs in the past but everybody is motivated and keen to be moving forward. I have millions of ideas per day and I'm looking forward to pitching them to the President to bring something new to the destination."
"One of my aims, with the communications agency, is to reposition the destination and give it a new image. St. Martin is a positive country going forward and that's the impulse I want to give to the office. There are quite a few projects we have with the communications agency putting our campaign out there in the different markets in Brazil, Canada, South America, and France. Then there are other projects that have been on the back burner and I'm seriously ready to work on them now."
She noted the visitor demographic to St. Martin is 40-65 and current marketing is targeting the young, active vacationer with money to spend.
Despite a shortage of hotel rooms, generally there have been positive steps forwards such as the promotion and recent classification of the guest houses, and existence of small 20-room hotels. But where investment is concerned for major hotel projects this is hindered by the high cost of land, Rogers-Vanterpool explained.
"The land is usually private but whatever the Collectivité can do to alleviate the situation is better for us and for investment; this is one of my priorities to work on."
