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MARIGOT--St. Martin Tourism Office Director Kate Richardson disclosed at Friday's press conference the tourism office and Collectivité have partnered with the popular French TV channel Trace to promote the destination at the upcoming Foire de Paris (Paris Fair) early May.

Through the initiative of the Collectivité's office in Paris, Maison de St. Martin, the Fair has invited traditional St. Martin ensemble The Jolly Boys and singer Oswald to perform during the event while Trace TV will film promotional spots for the destination.

Trace TV has already been airing an Oswald video clip for the past two months which has increased his fan base significantly.

The channel will be promoting a Zumba event at the fair and at the same time promote a prize package to visit St. Martin and take Zumba classes. The tourism office is sponsoring one international teacher and a local teacher for the classes.

An additional prize of a week's stay for two will be offered by the tourism office to discover the island.

With regard to the St. Maarten Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART) to be held May 13-15 at the Sonesta Maho Resort, Richardson noted registration indicates some 60 suppliers and between 70-80 buyers coming from USA, Canada and South America.

"We can tell from the airport figures that there are more Canadian tour operators and South American operators, primarily from Brazil and Argentina, coming here than before and we still have that solid base of US tour operators and travel agents," Richardson noted.

The office's new advertising campaign to be launched later in the year is budgeted between 500 to 600,000 euros, she added.

"But due to budgetary reasons we will not be in the subway and not have big billboards like we had in the past because today the figures talk for themselves; to target the right people everything has to be digital, everyone has a smart phone, a tablet, and everyone goes on-line. Concerning the slogan, it's very short and can easily be translated into different languages. And we are trying to find a balance between showing an image and creating atmosphere around the image to make the vacationer really feel something."

Asked about progress in luring the Chinese market to St. Martin following the tourism office visit to China last year as a member of the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), Jeanne Rogers-Vanterpool said the following: "We made a lot of contacts there and there is interest from their side. A few hotels here are receiving Chinese visitors, not in great numbers but they are here. I am in talks with a major airline but I can't say more about that at the moment. Currently they have to come here via the USA. There are some visa issues to be worked out too but we are researching it to be ready for this market in the future."

She said the high season has been a good one but figures will be released at a later date in conjunction with Philippe Thévenet from the hotel association. The emphasis now is on promoting the destination for the low season for the markets in Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Commenting briefly on the recent strike by staff, Rogers-Vanterpool said an agreement had been signed on March 27 and the first meeting with staff under the new conditions was held April 14.

"Evidently a certain number of changes had to be made to assure the proper functioning of the office," she said about the agreement.