"How are we going to sell you?" », A question that many tourism professionals (tour operators, etc.) asked the Saint Martin tourist office in the weeks following Irma's visit.
"They were very worried about us," reports director Kate Richardson, who conducted numerous interviews by videoconference; she and president Valérie Damaseau have so far made no trips abroad. They chose to play the franchise card. "We don't want to tell stories that don't exist, we have to tell the truth," said the president at a press conference on Monday morning, who prefers to say that the French side will be ready for next season, 2018-2019, even if some hotels have already expressed their desire to reopen next March.
"Saint Martin has been devastated, of course, but we have the will to rebuild," insisted Kate Richardson with her interlocutors. However, she does not want to announce reopenings too soon. The hotels want to rebuild, but as long as the insurance files are not finished and the building standards officially defined, no deadline for the sites can be given. So a precise timetable.
In addition, "we are dependent on the airlines," adds the director of the agency. "Tour operators will only sell us if there are connections," she says. And to clarify that the Minister of Transport of Sint Maarten, the director of the tourist office recently participated in an aviation fair to discuss with companies their return. "We are doing the same thing on our side with Air France and Air Caraïbes," said Kate Richardson.
(More details on www.soualigapost.com)
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