Lots and lots of cruise ships

St.Maartens’s most important if not only source of income is Tourism.
The island receives a large amount of tourists by plane, cruise ships, yachts and boats each year. The biggest mass of tourists that visit the island travel by cruise ships. Late last year the world’s largest cruise liner, The Oasis of the seas docked on St. Maarten for the first time, and will continue to do so once a week for the rest of the season. Chief Operating Officer of the St. Maarten Harbor Group of Companies Keith Franka stated on Wednesday January 6th 2010 that it was an historic day for St. Maarten and the harbor, because of the fact that over sixteen thousand tourists made their way off six cruise ships on Wednesday at the St. Maarten port. It was the first time that the two cruise piers of the harbor were fully occupied by cruise ships. This was a very successful day for all the stores in town. St.Maarten is becoming more and more popular through all the cruises that dock on our island. Through all the tourists that visit our island on these cruises we get a lot of mouth-to-mouth advertising. It can be expected that Wednesday’s conditions will repeat itself at least four times for the remainder of the year. St. Maarten is continuously improving the harbor facilities which were completely renovated to receive the amount of cruise passengers it does per day a few years prior. Water taxies and busses are then provided to these tourists to carry them to the town, beaches and/or French side to shop, eat and just relax on the island. Promotion is also being done in all travel magazines and brochures and at cruise ship travel agencies in order to attract more tourists to the island.

Fine dining

St.Maarten is popular for its dining. We have so many restaurants that tourist can choose from. We have local, Italian, Indian, Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Dutch, French food, and thats just to name a few. We have a taste of everything on our tiny multi-cultural island. So whatever you’re in the mood for, we have to offer. This is of course good for our tourism. You can find all the different types of restaurants that our island has to offer on the different St.Maarten websites that they are. You can also find them in those vacation magazines from St.Maarten that you can most likely find at a tourism bureau or airport. On the site or in the magazine will give you a list of restaurants to choose from which makes it easier for the people vacationing on our island. We have restaurants with live entertainment and restaurants that would have a famous chef for the night which makes it exciting to dine in St.Maarten. The tourism bureau of St.Maarten also plays a big role when it comes to promoting the restaurants when they go to other places to promote St.Maarten they always talk about the best restaurants that our island has. The restaurants always have specials especially for the tourists visiting our island; I think this is a good idea because we're known as the friendly island. When you’re on vacation you certainly don’t want to cook that’s why we take care of the food for you because on St.Maarten we have nothing but fine dining.

The Boardwalk

The boardwalk is a beach promenade in the town of St.Maarten that is very popular for the tourists and locals. The beach promenade was made by the Commissioner of Tourism. It was made with the goal to attract more tourists to town but also locals. The beach promenade doesn't have a specific target group because there are things to do for all ages. The beach promenade is there for when you're done with shopping you can take a stroll down the boardwalk. The beach promenade has restaurants, bars, ice cream parlors, stores and an arcade for the kids. It’s also a beach so you can take a swim while you're strolling down. The boardwalk is popular for all kind of events such as new years. The boardwalk promotes events to hotels made especially for tourists. The boardwalk is where you can have a good time island style. The boardwalk is popular for the tourists that come from the cruise ships. There is a special water taxi that takes you from the cruise straight to the boardwalk. This was made for the tourists who wanted to go straight into town. St.Maarten keeps coming up with all these ideas and activities for the tourists that keep our image as one of the best vacationing spots. When it comes to the marketing aspect of the boardwalk there is not much in travel magazines or brochures, we need to increase the promotion. We need to try and get the hotels to have special busses going to the beach promenade. It is one of St.Maarten finest trademarks.