Ali Laggoune has worked in the tourism sector for thirty years. Welcoming groups for seminars or business trips, but also working with cruise lines and tour operators are its main activities. Second part of the interview he was kind enough to give us.
Faxinfo: Some professionals believe that the price difference between the two parts of the island favors Sint-Maarten.
Ali Laggoune: The goal of our actions is to attract customers who will spend, and once again, I repeat, the main thing is not the price. Let's stop focusing on the price by complaining about the Dutch side which would be cheaper because it has less load and the dollar rate favors them. No, what the customer is looking at is the value for money.
We have to deal with a clientele that has a lot of offers throughout the Caribbean, and we are no longer necessarily able to impose prices that do not correspond to a reality.
Faxinfo: What could be the ways to stand out from the crowd and compete with the Dutch side or Anguilla?
Ali Laggoune: If you want to compete with the Dutch side, or Anguilla, trying to do the same, it's doomed to failure. We do not have the same hotel capacity as the Dutch side, nor the administrative and social flexibility that these two destinations. So we have to find something else. We are condemned to quality, to originality, and I think that is what will make the beautiful clientele return to Saint-Martin.
We must keep this French Touch approach which contributes to this difference and not lose it. This is what sets us apart from other islands.
Faxinfo: For that, you have to improve the quality, the welcome…?
Ali Laggoune: The French part must be different, whether in hotels, restaurants, transport, etc. We need increased quality and above all a service that must be of extreme quality. We can always improve the service, the quality of the services, and we have to relearn how to smile, to welcome ... Irma must be behind us! The moment of compassion having passed, we must leave that behind. We must stop taking refuge behind this hurricane which destroyed everything. Tourists do not come to reassure us, to hear about what has hurt us. Each country has its problems. Let’s go back and find the carefree quality that characterized the French side.
Interview by RM
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Well said Mr Laggoune, but in the face of daily crimes, the degradation of our island and the absence of authority which, by way of acceptance of high-end tourism, prefers the acceptance in our tourist streets the tramps, junkies, prostitution, drug dealers and garbage cans… .. And so on… ..
Good luck !