by Joe Pike
Last updated: 5:14 PM ET, Thu May 23, 2019
The 15th St. Martin/St. Maarten Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART), which kicked off Tuesday night and wraps up today, is arguably the most important addition in the conference's history.
After all, just under two years since being leveled by Hurricane Irma, the destination has had an audience of more than 90 buyer-and-supplier companies to show off their outstanding recovery progress.
In fact, in his opening remarks Tuesday night, St. Martin Tourism Office President Valérie Damaseau told attendees that SMART 2019 represented a "rebirth" for the destination's tourism product.
And perhaps no other resort company in St. Maarten exemplifies that rebirth more than Sonesta Resorts St. Maarten, which had all three of its St. Maarten hotels completely devastated by Hurricane Irma.
Sonesta Maho Beach Resort, Casino & Spa, which reopened February in a brand new facility, has been the host hotel for this year's conference, an achievement that St. Maarten Minister of Tourism Stuart Johnson said "no one could have imagined one year and eight months" ago.
Sonesta Ocean Point Resort reopened last December. The third Sonesta hotel, The Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort, Casino & Spa, was actually sold to Blue Diamond Resorts and will become a Planet Hollywood hotel in 2021.
Other Destination Updates
A press conference was held earlier this afternoon updating attendees on the destination's ongoing recovery efforts following the brutal 2017 hurricane season.
According to a St. Maarten tourism spokesperson who attended the conference, here's the latest updates.
Most airlines have resumed service to the island with either year-round or seasonal service including Sunwing Airlines, Air Canada, JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and the regional Caribbean carriers. There has also been an increase in private jet arrivals.
Princess Juliana International Airport, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, expects to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2020, but operations have been moved into parts of the terminal building for increased capacity and comfort
The airport has registered a 144 percent increase in arrivals for the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2018.
As far as hotel inventory goes, 61 percent of all hotels and timeshare units on the Dutch side have been reopened, while 75 percent of all French side hotels have reopened. About 65 percent of St. Maarten's villa product has been renovated. Overall, 69 properties are open and 35 still remain closed island-wide. The destination expects to have 73 percent of its total room inventory available by the first quarter of next year.
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