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by The Wayfinder
The increased arrival numbers, be it cruise or air passengers, are unequivocally positive. But numbers of arrivals are a volume measurement, not a prosperity measurement. Turn the debate from tourism promotion into tourism economics.
St. Maarten’s tourism promotion may need a serious review and re-evaluation, not because the existing strategy has failed, but because it has succeeded in a way that may now be creating the wrong incentives. The review is not an attack on tourism or cruise. It is the next stage of tourism maturity.
The key question should no longer be: “How do we get more tourists?” but: “What kind of visitor creates the greatest long-term value for St. Maarten?” and “How do we make the people who already want to come choose to stay longer?” That is a much more interesting marketing problem and potentially a much more profitable one. St. Maarten should stop measuring tourism success primarily by visitor volume and start measuring it by value created per visitor, per day and per unit of infrastructure consumed.
The most important question for government, port and tourism authorities and the SHTA is: “If we could choose between 100,000 additional visitors for one day and 20,000 additional visitors for seven days, which would create more prosperity for the people of St. Maarten?” and “What is the net economic contribution per visitor-day?”
- The government should be able to answer:
- How much did those passengers spend on the island?
- How much remained in the local economy?
- How many jobs did that spending support?
- What was the average expenditure per passenger?
- What did each passenger cost in infrastructure and public services?
- What is the economic value of a cruise passenger compared with a seven-night visitor?
- How much additional congestion did the passenger generate?
What environmental cost accompanied the additional volume?
How many cruise passengers subsequently returned as stayover visitors?
Until those questions are answered with actual numbers, promoting more arrivals is more a volume strategy than an economic strategy. If one cannot measure things, then one doesn’t know what it is doing.
St. Maarten is a small island. It cannot realistically pursue unlimited visitor growth forever. At some point, the question becomes one of carrying capacity and diminishing returns. If another 100,000 visitors require more roads, more water, more electricity, more waste management, more policing, more beaches, more infrastructure and more congestion, but produce relatively little additional net income, then growth in visitor numbers can actually become economically irrational.
Is reviewing and re-evaluating tourism done by developing a new Tourism Masterplan like a five-year-plan? Rather than asking every five years, “What is our new strategy?” one should continuously ask: What has currently changed? Adaptation should be a permanent process. The masterplan should change a tourism authority into an economic-development institution which consequently may require staffing changes.
If one would ask: “What business are we really in on St. Maarten?” Many would answer: “Tourism.”
Indeed, the island is extremely dependent on tourism. Its broader economic dependence on tourism is close to 70–90%. St. Maarten’s economic engine is ultimately fueled by each tourist dollar. Tourism pays today’s bills. Criticizing dependence on tourism can be interpreted as criticizing the island’s main source of jobs and income.
However, it would sound wiser when the answer to the question would be “St. Maarten is in the business of improving the lives of the people who live here.” Mind that tourism, aviation, shipping, investment and government are tools—not goals.
About The Wayfinder
A Wayfinder defines a role rather than a person. A Wayfinder is not a leader, a politician, or a critic. A Wayfinder asks questions, studies patterns, and searches for the safest and wisest course ahead. These essays are offered in that spirit—not as answers, but as invitations to think together.
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