~TEATT Minister says Airbnb legislation could generate millions, confirms the 2026 tourism cleanliness rating has declined among stayover visitors, and warns that artificially capping GEBE’s fuel price could lead to blackouts or bankruptcy.~
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Grisha Heyliger-Marten has thrown her support behind a visitor tax, while revealing that legislation to bring Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms into Sint Maarten’s lodging-tax system has been in the legislative process since late 2025.
Responding to Members of Parliament during the second round of the 2026 budget debate, Heyliger-Marten addressed tourism taxation, Airbnb, hotel taxes, GEBE’s fuel clause, public transportation, the Philipsburg Marketplace, cannabis, the island’s cleanliness ratings and several parliamentary motions.
One of the most significant disclosures concerned the government’s attempt to capture revenue from Sint Maarten’s rapidly expanding short-term rental sector.
According to Heyliger-Marten, the government issued the drafting assignment for the legislation in March 2025. The draft was completed by October 2025, submitted to Legal Affairs for internal review and forwarded to other departments in November 2025. It remains under government review.
During clarification, the minister acknowledged that the legislation had been held up at Legal Affairs, attributing the delay in part to human-capacity constraints.
That means legislation identified as a potentially significant revenue generator has remained unfinished while the government continues searching for additional revenue to finance the country.
Airbnb, Booking.com Could Collect Tax for Government
The proposed legislation would modernize Sint Maarten’s lodging guest-tax system and give online platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com a legal basis to collect lodging guest tax from visitors and remit the money directly to the government.
Heyliger-Marten said the legislation would also address points-based timeshare memberships, eliminating uncertainty about whether stays obtained through timeshare points are taxable.
The minister described the potential financial impact as tens of millions annually, but made clear these remain projections rather than collected revenue.
That distinction is important.
Sint Maarten may have a potentially lucrative revenue source sitting within its tourism industry, but until the legislation is completed, passed and implemented, those projected millions remain on paper.
Hotel Tax Could Move From 5% to 8%, 10% and Eventually 12%
The draft goes considerably further than Airbnb.
Heyliger-Marten told Parliament that Sint Maarten’s existing hotel tax rate is 5%, which she described as the lowest in the Caribbean.
The proposal contemplates a phased increase, following stakeholder consultation, from the current rate toward 8%, then 10% and ultimately 12%.
Such a change would represent a substantial restructuring of how Sint Maarten taxes its tourism economy.
It also raises an important policy question: after years of residents carrying much of the country’s tax burden through wage, income, turnover and consumption-related taxes, should government be moving more aggressively to extract revenue from the hundreds of thousands of visitors using Sint Maarten’s infrastructure every year?
Heyliger-Marten appears to believe it should.
“I Am a Huge Proponent of the Visitor’s Tax”
When MP Egbert Doran sought clarification on whether the TEATT Minister herself supported a visitor tax, Heyliger-Marten removed any ambiguity.
“I am a huge proponent of the visitor’s tax,” she told Parliament.
The minister referred to approximately 885,000 stayover visitors last year and asked Parliament to consider the revenue that could have been generated if each visitor had paid $15.
Using the minister's figure, a $15 charge on 885,000 visitors would represent approximately $13.275 million in potential gross revenue before accounting for exemptions, collection costs, or other implementation factors.
Heyliger-Marten lamented the length of Sint Maarten's legislative process, saying she would have preferred to have such legislation in place already.
Her comments put a concrete number behind a debate that has continued for years.
While the government looks for revenue, the tourism industry brings hundreds of thousands of people to the country annually. Even a relatively modest visitor charge could potentially generate millions.
The question is how quickly government can turn the proposal into enforceable law.
Tourists Are Noticing a Dirtier Sint Maarten
Heyliger-Marten also released tourism survey figures that should concern government.
Stayover visitors were asked to rate the island’s cleanliness on a scale of one to five, with one representing very poor and five excellent.
The rating fell from 3.80 in 2024 to 3.66 in 2025 and 3.52 in 2026.
Cruise visitors gave the island higher scores: 4.00 in 2024, approximately 4.23 in 2025 and 4.17 in 2026, according to the figures first provided by the minister.
MP Veronica Jansen-Webster highlighted the significance of the stayover figures, arguing that visitors who move throughout the island appear to be noticing deteriorating cleanliness.
She contrasted that with cruise passengers, many of whom spend at least part of their visit within the comparatively controlled environment around the port.
Whatever the explanation, the trend among stayover visitors is unmistakable: 3.80, 3.66, 3.52.
For a country whose economy depends heavily on tourism, declining visitor perceptions of cleanliness cannot simply be treated as a cosmetic issue.
Marketplace Targeted for Completion in Q2 2027
Heyliger-Marten also provided an update on the long-awaited Philipsburg Marketplace.
She confirmed that the building permit has been received and said construction is expected to proceed after the permit is issued, with final completion anticipated in the second quarter of 2027.
The marketplace has been an outstanding issue for Philipsburg vendors for years, making the Q2 2027 target an important commitment that can now be measured against actual execution.
Carrying-Capacity Study Targeted for 2027
The minister also responded to Wescot-Williams on Sint Maarten’s tourism carrying capacity.
Heyliger-Marten said the ministry had reviewed an existing carrying-capacity study for Curaçao for insight as it prepares Sint Maarten’s own study.
With approval of the 2026 budget, procurement is expected to begin within weeks, with completion targeted around Q1-Q2 2027.
The study could become crucial as Sint Maarten weighs continued tourism growth against road congestion, waste management, housing pressure, beaches, utilities and other infrastructure constraints.
GEBE: Fuel Price Cap Could Mean Blackouts
Heyliger-Marten also pushed back against a proposal to use price-control legislation to cap the price of heavy fuel oil supplied to GEBE.
Her warning was stark.
Sint Maarten imports 100% of its heavy fuel oil, she said, meaning the government cannot force international suppliers to sell fuel below global market prices.
If the government imposed an artificial cap below market value, she warned, suppliers could stop delivering, or GEBE could become financially unsustainable.
“The tankers can stop coming, or GEBE goes bankrupt,” Heyliger-Marten told Parliament.
Instead, she said government is working through BTP to audit GEBE and provide greater transparency and accountability surrounding its concession and billing.
MP Omar Ottley later clarified that his concern was not necessarily a maximum fuel price but a maximum profit level, allowing prices to move with international markets while restricting excessive margins.
Heyliger-Marten said she and Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs are working on what she called a “buffer” to reduce the impact of sudden oil-price increases on consumers.
Cannabis Is in Governing Program — But Not Governing Accord
Cannabis again generated disagreement.
Asked whether cannabis legislation formed part of the coalition agreement, Heyliger-Marten initially stated that it was expressly included in the 2024-2028 governing program.
Wescot-Williams subsequently sought clarification because she was a signatory to the governing accord and did not want the public to conclude that she had signed an agreement endorsing cannabis legislation.
She stressed that the governing accord and governing program are not the same document.
Heyliger-Marten later clarified that cannabis was not in the governing accord.
She said the policy had been incorporated into the ministry’s governing program because it originated under the previous government and was carried forward on the basis of continuity.
That clarification is politically important because it separates what coalition parties formally agreed to from what government subsequently carried forward administratively as part of its programme.
Cannabis Testing Question Still Unanswered
The minister was also unable to tell Parliament who would independently test and audit THC dosage if regulated cannabis products eventually enter the legal market.
Jansen-Webster raised concerns about increasing THC concentrations and the risk of psychosis, asking who would verify dosage information printed on cannabis packaging and who would independently audit those tests.
Heyliger-Marten said she could not provide a specific answer at this stage and had forwarded the concern to the cannabis workgroup so clarification could be provided later.
Public Transportation Plan to Examine Underserved Districts
Heyliger-Marten additionally confirmed that the traffic mobility plan is intended to examine communities currently underserved or inadequately connected to public transportation.
She specifically referenced Middle Region, Zorg en Rust/Zagreb as transcribed, and Sucker Garden, saying the objective is to identify gaps and determine where routes, connections, and service coverage need improvement based on actual mobility requirements.
A Ministry Sitting on Several Potential Revenue Streams
Taken together, Heyliger-Marten’s answers reveal something larger than a collection of individual TEATT projects.
Sint Maarten has several potential revenue-generating measures on the table: taxing short-term rentals, direct platform collection, revised hotel taxation, and a visitor levy.
At the same time, the country continues to confront deteriorating cleanliness ratings among stayover tourists, gaps in public transportation, unfinished tourism infrastructure, and pressure on GEBE consumers.
The Airbnb legislation demonstrates the central challenge.
The government knows where additional revenue may exist. A draft has already been prepared. The financial potential has been estimated. Yet nearly a year after the draft reached the review stage, the law still has not emerged.
Heyliger-Marten has now publicly declared herself a “huge proponent” of the visitor tax and placed potentially millions of dollars in tourism revenue at the center of the debate.
The question for government is therefore no longer simply whether tourists should contribute more.
It is how many more millions Sint Maarten will leave uncollected while revenue-generating legislation remains trapped in its own legislative and administrative machinery.