The Honorable Minister Ted Richardson, responsible for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications, met with the management team of Ving -Thomas Cook Northern Europe.
The management team of Ving – Thomas Cook Northern Europe is conducting final hotel site inspections as they will be launching their charter to St. Maarten on November 10, 2014 and operate through March 2015. The flights will start in Stockholm, Sweden and make an intermediate stop in Gothenburg (Sweden) before arriving in St. Maarten. An Airbus 330-200 with 324 seats will be utilized for the journey. The flights will operate every 2 weeks, as such, visitors will stay 2 weeks on the destination. Hotels in the Ving-Thomas Cook Northern Europe program on the Southern side of the island are Divi Little Bay, Holland House Beach Hotel, Princess Heights, Sonesta Great Bay, Sonesta Maho and the Westin.
The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau started working with Ving -Thomas Cook Nordic in 2011. As a result, there was a soft launch of the destination in 2012. Considering the increasing sales volume, Ving – Thomas Cook Northern Europe expressed interest in operating a charter service to St. Maarten. In April 2013, the product-, sales- and marketing manager conducted site inspections at various hotels to explore additional properties for their product line up. In October and November, various technical persons, such as photographers, videographers and writers from Ving – Thomas Cook Northern Europe traveled to the destination to get a better feel of the destination and hotels in order to better describe them in the brochures and video. St. Maarten as a charter destination was launched in December 2013.
Thomas Cook Northern Europe which is the parent company of tour operators: Ving, Spies, Tjäreborg, Globetrotter, and airline Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and the hotel chain Sunwing Family Resorts. Thomas Cook Northern Europe is part of the Thomas Cook Group which is active in 19 countries with 23 million customers annually and employs 29,000 people.
Photo caption: Minister Ted Richardson (3rd from Right) with Ving – Thomas Cook Northern Europe Management Team and members of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau.