Minister of Tourism Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher on Sunday announced that Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB) Rolando Brison will lead a small team to the Netherlands to participate in various “Dinner Workshops” to promote and provide information to the Dutch travel trade sector so that they are able to sell the destination to their respective clients. The group left on Sunday until April 14.
He will be joined be staff of the STB as well as tourism partners from the Sonesta group, Westin Resort, Maduro & Sons, Holland House and Divi Resorts. The St. Maarten team will also get the opportunity to meet with several tour operators during a “Tour Operator Lunch” being held in Hoofddorp.
During the Dinner Workshop and the Tour Operator lunch, STB together with the attending partners will each give a presentation. Each evening the program will start at 18.00 and will end around 22.00. The locations are:
Monday the 10th: Rotterdam
Tuesday the 11th: Bloemendaal
Tuesday the 11th: Tour Operator Lunch at Hoofddorp
Wednesday the 12th: Valburg (near Nijmegen)
Thursday the 13th: Brussels (Belgium)
A small market will be created where partners will have their own table. Before and after the official program, this market is an extra opportunity to provide the travel agents with more information. There will be between 30 and 35 travel agents per evening of different travel organizations in the Netherlands (among others TUI, Travel Counsellors, D-Reizen and Travel Club).
“We continue to reach out and speak to key players in all of the markets we target. While we look to attract new airlift from Europe, we also must ensure that tour operators and the general travel sector in the Benelux market are armed with information about the destination,” the Minister said. “Mr. Brison and his team from STB is well versed on our plans and vision for the destination as it relates to the European market and we expect will do a terrific job in pushing the friendly island,” she added.
The STB is also taking along several promo videos and other promotional material from St. Maarten including promo videos and information about St. Maarten Carnival, St. Maarten Heineken Regatta and St. Maarten Music Festival.