Press briefing by Commissioner of tourism, aviation – Frans G. Richardson
I have invited you here this afternoon to share with you the latest indicative numbers, figures and developments relating to St. Maarten’s tourism products, which are available to me, at this point in time.
It is essential that the general public is made aware of the real facts, in order to safeguard against false impressions being created. In the past we have been painted a very different picture of the state of our economy and our tourism product.
One is left in the dark as to what contributed to misreading or maybe, misinterpretation of data, in the past; today I wish merely to share with you, whatever data and information that is available to my office, at this point in time.
Today I want to stress the decreases over the past period during the period January to June.
It is also important to point out the following:
The local economy suffered approximately $12.4 million dollars in loss during the above period, without taking the yachting and other segments/components of the economy into consideration.
Most importantly is that we have to act swiftly to mitigate the effects of the ongoing decline in our economy and our tourism; I have, over the course of the past weeks, already began with this process by first meeting with major stakeholders, both here and abroad.
The goals of these meetings were:
· To ascertain where we now stand, from the point of view of the stakeholders;
· what stakeholders expect from government;
· what joint actions can be entertained or are feasible, at this point in time.
(Stimulus program)
A St. Maarten delegation led by my person, was in Florida recently exploring, among others, the potential for marketing the island and to address airlift issues.
The delegation 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 regards 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.
Ms.Regina Labega Head of St.Maarten Tourism Department
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 which does have such an initiative ongoing.
Proposals of how this can still be achieved for St. Maarten is 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 PR 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 the purpose of 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 or not we are on target with our projections.
Allow me to begin with passenger movement statistics.
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.
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
We also have 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.
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.
Once again, we saw slightly greater numbers in January and February and the present declines, which were to be expected.
Another market of which we have the figures is that of South America – countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and others.
The country from where most of these arrivals have come is Brazil.
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, we 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 a total of 278,594; that is movement at the airport by airlines.
Departures have amounted to a total of 392,440.
Additional notes are those of cruise ship arrivals amounting to a total of 781,063 thus far this year.
On average, we have had 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.
Airlift
The matter of airlift has had my attention since I took office; one topic which still has my attention is Westjet, a Canadian carrier, to provide scheduled airlift service to St. Maarten.
Key members of my office were and continue to be instrumental in facilitating the ongoing process for obtaining the required permits and licenses to realize WestJet scheduled airlift service into St. Maarten.
Just recently, WestJet had been seeking additional information such as:
– the required immigration forms to be completed for arriving passengers and other technical and operational requirements.
My office was then informed that WestJet’s request to Civil Aviation authorities is already being processed and one of the key issues is/was regulating the Bi-lateral Agreement between Canada and the Netherlands Antilles.
We were subsequently advised that WestJet has received the CTA License authorizing WestJet to offer scheduled air service from Canada to Saint Maarten.
For clarification sake, West Jet began flying charter to St. Maarten since 2002 — on behalf of Transat Tours Canada up until May 10th, 2009 when they mutually and cordially terminated their contract. Since October 2006 West Jet had indicated that it is interested in providing scheduled airlift service to St. Maarten.
West Jet was being handled by Menzies Aviation (both Ramp and Passenger handling) since 2002 up until June 30th 2006.
In July 2006 when Menzies had to close its doors to passenger Handling, Juliana Airport Handlers who won the concession to do passenger Handling at the Princess Juliana Airport again was given the contract of West Jet for Passenger Handling and Menzies continued to perform the Ramp handling for the Airline.
Apparently, former commissioner of tourism, Roy Mr. Marlin, was not aware of the aforementioned when he chose to make statements regarding West Jet.
To recap: West Jet is not new to St. Maarten; the only thing new and of importance is that WestJet is a new SCHEDULED CARRIER; West Jet performed as a charter service yearly, except for the month of April, into St. Maarten, in the past. West Jet is then to become the first airline to provide scheduled airlift service out of Canada into St. Maarten.
The previous commissioner of tourism had also been looking at attracting additional airlift out of South America.
As you know, we have been looking at Aserca Airlines – which would provide airlift out of South America.
We have understood however that contrary to the impression created by the former commissioner of tourism, they are not providing scheduled airlift service to St. Maarten.
The former commissioner also failed to disclose how a commitment had been made by the previous Executive Council to the tune of some 500,000 U.S. dollars for the promotion of said flights…
A commitment which the former commissioner knew could not be honored – particularly since we are talking about charter flights executed once per month!
End
(Question/ answer session)
IN CONCLUSION, I WISH TO EXPRESS WORDS OF APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE TO THE FOLLOWING PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN ASSISTING MY OFFICE LATELY AND WERE PART OF THE FLORIDA MISSIONS:
PETER DOLARA – VICE PRESIDENT AMERICAN AIRLINES
BENNET BELL, SUZY KARTOKROMO, ROY MINGO – AMERICAN AIRLINES
EMILE LEE – ST. MAARTEN HOSPITALITY AND TRADE ASSOCIATION
REGINA LABEGA – ST. MAARTEN TOURIST BUREAU