Port St. Maarten – TelEm Group has wasted no time in putting out a welcome mat for visitors to the upcoming 21st Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Cruise Convention & Trade Show being hosted by Port St. Maarten from October 6 – 10th – Actually, it’s more like a welcome DISH.
The welcome is boldly posted on the company’s huge satellite dish to the left of the building when looking from the vantage point of Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill).
And although the opening ceremonies for the event is still two weeks away, TelEm Group hereby demonstrates the importance of promoting the upcoming conference for its sister company Port St. Maarten, but far MORE IMPORTANT for the destination.
“There can be no mistake that the Port St. Maarten, has done much to position St. Maarten as the number one cruise tourist destination in the North Eastern Caribbean, a position from which we all benefit commercially,” said Mr. Brian Mingo, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at TelEm.
“TelEm has grown in leaps and bounds in the past few years assisted by revenues from roaming customers who come off the cruise ships every day looking to communicate with their families and friends back home.
“Most recently we have collaborated with the Port St. Maarten to open a crew lounge at the Harbour facility in Point Blanche, the first of its kind in the Caribbean” added the Commercial Chief.
We believe that as corporate citizens, TelEm Group and other major companies on St. Maarten are being presented with a unique opportunity to network with the companies and organizations scheduled to attend the upcoming event with a view to catering their future products and services to the needs of the cruise ship industry.
“The theme of the conference is “Reinventing Cruise St. Maarten”, and Port St. Maarten finding a new way forward, but I believe it is also about reinventing ourselves as corporate partners to up our game generally to put support structures in place so that cruise visits can convert to long-stay visits and repeat business for the destination.
“In the same way that other cruise ship destinations have learned from and emulated our own success, we can also learn from the successes of Mega tourist cities such as Orlando, Las Vegas, Washington, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Dubai, etc. and see how we can morph those successes into the creation of our brand with new products and services on our 37 square miles,” said Mr. B. Mingo.
He added, TelEm Group is doing much more than sending a welcome message to visitors of the FCCA Conference.
“We will have a kiosk on the conference floor and will facilitate the guests with WIFI at the event to ensure excellent connectivity throughout the conference.”
According to Mr. B. Mingo, the telecommunication demands for this sort of corporate tourism (in this case the FCCA Cruise Conference) which also is BIG in all top destination cities, reinforces the company’s decision to invest in a new 4G/LTE mobile network that will meet the island’s seemingly insatiable hunger for mobile data.
Port St. Maarten CEO Mark Mingo says support from companies like TelEm Group will ensure the 21st FCCA Cruise Convention & Trade Show being hosted on St. Maarten will be a huge success.
“It will provide insights into current trends and developments in the cruise sector as well as give us an idea of where things will be in five to ten years from now.
This event is bigger than TELEM, it is bigger than Port St. Maarten, it is about everybody who is working in the tourist sector on a daily basis. It is about our future, it is about St. Maarten, and showing our BEST side so that the decision makers of the cruise business will feel comfortable to make additional commitments to our island.
“With a local cruise sector that is valued at more than US$ 350 million annually and employing directly and indirectly 1000s of people, we really cannot afford to hold back. We have to get all government and private companies on board (all hands on deck), and show what we are, this is the least we can do to support our economic input.
We had SUN, SEA and SAND more than 100 years ago and other islands have had this also, but without promoting and the upkeep of our product St. Maarten, we will not keep up, and stand the chance to lose it all, hence why the cruise conference theme is, “Reinventing Cruise St. Maarten.” It’s a commitment we all have to make to protect what we have built through 50-years of cruise,” CEO of Port St. Maarten Mark Mingo stated.