SHTA Vision for St. Maarten

Economy

Impacts

• Resident Impact:
  A strong economy means job security, career growth and opportunities, increased earnings
• Business Impact:
  Profits needed for growth, investments and upgrading to remain competitive, reserves for disasters and employee benefits
• Visitor Impact:
  Needs to be competitive with other Caribbean Islands in price and services

Proposed Sollutions

Infrastructure

1. Decrease Congestion
   Reducing the traffic and congestion on the island will go a long way in reducing costs and attracting new customers for existing businesses. Visitors will be able to experience more of the island, businesses will be able to target more consumers and residents will be able to shop around.
2. Improve Technology
   Better and more accessible technology will open up new opportunities for the island in terms of business services, new companies and increases efficiency while reducing costs. Examples are new Internet services, wireless solutions and better communications.
3. Improve Connectivity
   Constantly improving connectivity to the major markets in terms of airlift is necessary to maintain visitors. More carriers lead to better rates and better connections making traveling easier and less expensive.

Operations

1. Improve Quality Services
   Constant training is needed to maintain satisfaction levels of an ever more demanding customer. In this competitive environment, service is often the deciding factor. Skilled employees, efficient businesses and amiable residents are what is expected from the Friendly Island.
2. Increase Productivity
   Training and education as well as experience consistently improve services as well as productivity. This reduces costs and increases the number of customers that can be served as well as improves satisfaction levels and word of mouth recommendations.
3. Increase Linkages
   Linkages need to be improved to ensure that any improved earnings for the island stay on the island and are well distributed to all businesses and residents. This is the way to ensure that tourism serves the island in the best way for everyone.

Awareness

1. Increase Market Share
   Marketing programs are needed to ensure that St. Maarten is a vacation destination of choice in our potential visitors’ minds. This is the only way to stay competitive with other destinations and bounce back quickly from natural disasters such as hurricanes.
2. Target Quality Visitors
   With infinite resources, the island needs to continue to target higher-spending passengers to achieve growth. This means a better understanding of our current visitors and their spending patterns, and demographics with programs such as Immigration Statistics.
3. Tourism Awareness
   Only by getting everyone involved, benefi ting from, and supporting tourism, will we be able to move our tourism economy further and improve our visitor experience, tourism spending, and overall earnings from tourism.