Richardson said in the past a very different picture of the economy was painted as well as with the tourism product.
The commissioner released figures from January to June of this year and it is important to know that the island has already lost of $12.4 million in revenue during the first half of the year. This amount does include the loss the yachting industry and other segments have suffered.
Richardson further explained that is of uttermost importance that they act swiftly to mitigate the effects of the ongoing decline in the economy and tourism, He said over the course of the past weeks, already began with this process by first meeting with major stakeholders, both locally and abroad. The goals of the meetings he said is to ascertain where the island stands and the views of the stakeholders, also discussed are the expectations of government and what joint actions needed to be taken and what is feasible for those involved.
Stimulus program
The commissioner said he led a delegation who went to Florida recently exploring, among others, the potential of marketing the island and to address airlift issues.
The delegation he said was updated about trends in airlift bookings and hotel reservations, tracking developments as of 2007.
The island government of St. Maarten is presently awaiting proposals with regard to marketing the island for the remainder of 2009.
Talks were conducted with senior executives of Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Spirit Airlines, and American Airlines, during the recent visit.
The meeting with Expedia, St. Maarten’s largest online wholesaler, was of an introductory nature, with the commissioner being briefed on St. Maarten’s performance.
One reason mentioned for a decline in tourist arrivals is the lack of an island wide promotional effort as compared to, for instance, St. Lucia that does have such an initiative ongoing.
Proposals of how St. Maarten can progress are presently being awaited.
Officials of Travelocity confirmed the decline in bookings as well the practice of visitors booking their flights much closer to the date of travel as compared to the 30 to 45 day booking window, previously experienced.
The meeting with Spirit Airlines served to obtain a commitment from the carrier that service would be maintained for St. Maarten.
The meeting with American Airlines was particularly encouraging, with American Airlines Vice President Peter Dolara sharing views with the commissioner regarding strategies to secure St. Maarten’s place in the tourism market place.
This considering the fact that St. Maarten has gone from a clear trendsetter to a destination facing notable competition, more and more from other Caribbean destinations, as well.
Introductory discussions were additionally conducted with Kahn Communications, a public relations firm representing St. Maarten. Among topics discussed were strategies for a coordinated effort at marketing the island.
The companies with which talks were conducted are all major online operators, where visitors go to for booking flights and other travel needs.
The declining visitor numbers and figures speak for themselves and based on discussions held with some of our tourism partners in the U.S., one idea is to shift some of the funds earmarked to marketing efforts in South American markets, to North American markets.
What do the numbers show?
The available data, as made available by the tourism bureau, indicate, among others, the following:
1. A change in the pattern of how many days / weeks / months prior to coming to St. Maarten, bookings are actually made; that window has become smaller.
2. The impact that internet based bookings is having on the overall situation.
3. St. Maarten’s hotel inventory and quality.
4. The St. Maarten tourism product quality.
What we now have is statistical date, giving us a comparative overview. This enables us to further determine whether we are on target with our projections.
Arrival Stats
St. Maarten 2009 Air Arrivals as registered at the Princess Juliana International Airport indicate the following:
First the figures related to visitors from the Caribbean during the months of January, February, March, April, May and June.
Those Passenger movement figures from the Caribbean are respectively:
In other words, the months in which we surpassed the 2.000 mark in Caribbean visitors was January (coinciding with the New Year) and April (coinciding with our yearly carnival festivities).
Most Caribbean visitors during these first 6 months of 2009 came from:
• Antigua/Barbuda
• British islands /British West Indies Islands
• Dominican Republic
• Haiti
• St.Kitts/Nevis
• Trinidad/Tobago
The figures for Europe; those are figures related to persons arriving from:
• France
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Russia
• Other European countries
The majority of the arrivals came from France, Holland, and Italy. Arrivals from France are considerably higher than arrivals from all other European destinations.
Therefore, the total amounts of arrivals from Europe for the months of January through June 2009 are as follows, per month:
As compared to January of this year, there has been a clear decline in the month of June.
We then look at the figures for arrivals from North America, the U.S. and Canada – for that same period of 2009.
The total figures for arrivals from the U.S. and Canada combined amount to:
Once again, we saw slightly greater numbers in January and February and the present declines, which was to be expected.
Another market of which the figures is that of South America – countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and others.
Arrivals from South America have been as follows, thus far for 2009:
The country from where most of these arrivals have come is Brazil.
Arrivals from the rest of the world, including Antilleans, amounted to the following figures for the respective past 6 months:
Total Passenger arrivals inclusive of Domestic arrivals up to June 2009 as compared to the same period in 2008, amount to the following figures for the months starting as of January to June:
This clearly shows declines in tourist arrivals over-all as compared to the same period in 2008.
Visitor arrival comparisons
If we look at Visitor Arrival Comparisons by the first quarter for this year as compared to last year, note the following:
There has been a decrease of 14,6 percent, taking into consideration the total picture of arrivals from all destinations.
For the second quarter, this decrease is less and amounts to 5 percent as compared to the same period last year.
Passenger movement at the Princess Juliana International Airport
Passenger movements for the first 6 months of the year amounted to 278,594; that is movement at the airport by airlines. Departures have amounted to 392,440.
Additional notes are those of cruise ship arrivals amounting to 781,063 thus far this year. On average, there is an average 57 percent room occupancy among hotels for the first 6 months of this year. This as compared to an average 63 percent throughout the previous two years.
