PHILIPSBURG—The Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport & Telecommunication has announced that St. Maarten will be the host venue for the fifth annual Caribbean Aviation Link Up Conference in 2020.
The event is scheduled to be held from June 16th to June 18th and will feature top experts from around the world meet to discuss innovations in Aviation. St. Maarten hosted the event from June 11th to June 13th this year at the Simpson Bay Resort, and according to TEATT, the event was a “huge success.”
In a release issued Sunday Minister of TEATT the honourable Stuart Johnson expressed his anxious anticipation of the events return saying that it puts St. Maarten’s aviation industry in a very positive light. He said, “Within the Aviation Industry there are trends and changes in the way things are done, and new ideas on how to improve the level and quality of service we provide to travellers. St. Maarten as a hub destination.” Johnson also said that security in Aviation is an area that his ministry continues to monitor. “For us to continue to compete globally, we simply must take advantage of forums such as these to better prepare for the future,” said Johnson.
Following this year’s Conference, the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau held a meeting on Wednesday, July 24th to evaluate how well they did and determine how they can even improve next years event. Johnson said that the plan is to see how they can extend the Conference for a week as doing so will allow for more time to delve deeper into the various topics in Aviation.
The Conference consisted of sessions on several topics related to the aviation industry as well as tourism and hospitality. One of the sessions was held at the L’Esperance Airport in Grand Case, and the group also took a trip to St. Barth as well as a tour of the SXM Airport.
Director of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau May-Ling Chun said, “We are pleased that this decision has been made as we see this being very important not only for our tourism industry but also our economy and putting St. Maarten/St. Martin again centre stage at the Conference and being able to have talks with the various stakeholders in the aviation industry.”