Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Today is the official opening of the 21st annual Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) conference and tradeshow. For the second time St. Maarten has the honour of hosting this important gathering bringing about 1,000 industry professionals to the island.
The latter not only confirms the leading role of the destination regarding cruise tourism, but expresses confidence in the Harbour Group of Companies to be able to stage this event that has grown enormously over the years. In fact, due to its sheer magnitude nowadays a huge temporary hall had to be set up from scratch.
The port has been in a few news reports lately that were not without controversy, but one hardly can deny that the development of Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facilities in Pointe Blanche has been a major success story. About to surpass the annual two-million-passengers mark, Great Bay has seen a tremendous increase in calls by ships that also have become ever bigger.
Not only that, but investments realised with involvement of the Netherlands participation company made possible the upgrading and beautification of Philipsburg and surroundings with the “harbour shares buyback†deal via execution agency USONA. This in turn helped enhance the popularity of the product and thus attract additional business.
While it is often stated that stay-over tourism is considerably more beneficial because the guests are present for a much longer period, people should not underestimate the degree to which one can lead to the other. Over the years many of those who first came on ships later returned by plane and thus contributed to putting “heads in beds†at local resorts.
However, as the port management fully recognises and recently pointed out, it’s important to keep reinventing the sector and especially what the client is offered.
After all, getting to the top is one thing, remaining there quite another.
