PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — An expedited agreement was signed by acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Telecommunication and Transport (TEATT) Omar Ottley and the SHTA. The St Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) will launch an Expedia campaign in conjunction with the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau (STB).
A campaign agreement was officially signed on Thursday June 9th by Minister Omar Ottley in the presence of Executive Board member Ricardo Perez of the SHTA, Director May-ling Chun and Section Head Marketing Department Gianira Arrindell of STB. In the meanwhile, SHTA and partner organizations kicked off a multi-sector fundraiser to match government investment.
The public-private Expedia cooperation builds on a successful previous campaign from earlier this year dating back to 2017. Some of these campaigns resulting in increased revenues of 31% via Expedia, the largest tourism platform in the world, partnering in this public-private cooperation. The overall investment of government and the private sector paid off five times in extra room tax revenue.
Expedia’s recent Q1 report shows that there is worldwide tourism demand now the pandemic seems to have loosened its grip on global travel, with special interest in city and beach destinations. SHTA recently suggested to make more use of the opportunities of this timeframe by increasing marketing efforts and allocating government funds accordingly.
Minister Omar Ottley, understanding the urgency to make the 2022 St. Maarten summer meet demand and to provide income to the tourism dependent economy and preserving jobs in the process, pledged $25,000 partnership to a renewed Expedia cooperation campaign in conjunction with the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau (STB).
Within all sectors, the call to action under SHTA’s traditional adage “Tourism is Everybody’s Business” raised well over double government’s investment within 24 hours– this while many businesses on island still have not seen their business volumes reach back to their previously achieved levels. In total 67 companies heeded the call and pledged funds for this public-private island wide partnership, of whom a full list is published on SHTA.com/Expedia. All sectors responded e.g. associations, Banks, Hotels of all sizes, retailers, wholesalers, government owned entities. In other words, a true island wide private public collaborative effort. Businesses can still support this cause by sending their pledges to office@shta.com.
After multiple successful campaigns, SHTA has no doubt that this campaign will show immediate results and thanks the involved businesses and acting Minister of TEATT Omar Ottley for his swift assistance in creating the new Expedia campaign .
