Philipsburg – St. Maarten’s visitor arrivals in 2019 showcases the destination’s path to recovery. A total of 319,696 visitors were recorded at the Princess Juliana International Airport reporting an overall 80% increase in visitors compared to 2018.
Factors
that contributed to the 80% visitor increase were the increase in
flight frequencies from key gateway cities in the beginning of the first
quarter of 2019, as
well as the introduction of new airport gateways. In 2019, Jet Blue
introduced its new flight service between Fort Lauderdale and St.
Maarten, Sunwing returned with its winter flight service out of Montreal
and Toronto, and KLM returned with its direct 3 times
weekly flight.
While all source markets arrivals have increased for 2019, the
North American market, the destination’s main source markets, were the
biggest contributors to 2019’s visitor increase. 2019 Arrivals from
Canada recorded an increase
of 203% compared to 2018, and 2019 Arrivals from the United States
recorded an increase of 145%. The third biggest visitor increase was the
South American market with an increase of 72.2%, followed by the
European market with an increase of 22.4%.
Based
on the Annual Tourism Exit Survey report of 2018 and preliminary numbers
of data collected in 2019, there is strong support that visitors are
returning in numbers, with 55% – 70% of 2018
– 2019 survey samples being repeat guests. Satisfaction rates of the
destination’s product such as airport facilities, accommodation
offerings, and tour offerings have recorded minor decreases while other
aspects of the destination product have maintained
pre-Irma satisfaction averages of previous years.
To boost destination perception in order to aid returning flights; The
St. Maarten Tourism Bureau has executed various consumer marketing
campaigns in North American market such as campaigns with Expedia and
Trip Advisor amongst others.
Compared to 2016, which is utilized as a pre-Irma benchmark being the last full year of standard operations, in 2019, the destination received 61% of 2016’s visitor arrivals. “It is important that we continue our marketing efforts and strengthen our synergy amongst our partners and stakeholders, while we also focus on the long term objectives that will build the foundation for our tourism industry. The actions for 2020 will be concentrating on consumer awareness through heavy social media and digital marketing efforts as well as our branding” says Director of Tourism May-Ling Chun.
