TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Positive economic outlook for SXM

Daily Herald story

Great news, that the stayover tourist count is up 142% from this time last year!

Many rental car companies are running out of the most popular cars for this summer (I check almost daily). Definitely a good sign.

I suspect that is because a lot of cars were damaged or destroyed in the hurricane and the companies can't really afford to buy more cars yet.

Agree--but it wasn't that way last summer.

Weren't many places for people to stay nor could they rely on places to be ready prior to making flight reservations.

And flights were few and expensive!

Hence--consiberably more people coming this year as opposed to last as noted in the article.

Great news! I'd like to think that the efforts put forward by all of us on forums like this one help contribute to these rising numbers. Not to mention the dozens and dozens of friends, family and other people that I have encouraged to visit St. Maarten going back many years. I still believe that the cruise ships remain a key ingredient here. They provide the 'small sample' of what SXM has for them, and hopefully a greater number of folks return for such overnight stays. However, it is important that St. Maarten does not rest on it's laurels. Keeping crime down, the infrastructure improved, airport rebuilding efforts moving forward, etc. are all key items for the future.