PHILIPSBURG:---The 49th edition of the Dutch Tourism Trade Fair “Vakantiebeurs Utrecht” is being hailed as a success based on the positive feedback from many in attendance. Vakantiebeurs Utrecht opens the holiday season each year in January for Dutch travellers planning their vacation over the following 11- months of the year.
This year's trade show attracted over four hundred thousand (400,000) visitors over four days, and according to event organisers, it was better attended than the previous year. Attendees took advantage of the opportunity to make “on the spot bookings” for their holiday travel to St. Maarten. Several St. Maarten hotel properties were represented at the event including, Divi Little Bay Beach Resort, Sonesta Maho Beach Resort, Casino & Spa, and Sonesta Ocean Point Resort.
This year St. Maarten/St. Martin had a strong presence at the event consisting of Tourism specialists and other stakeholders in the Tourism industry from both sides of the island.
Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication (TEATT), the honourable Stuart Johnson, headed the Dutch Side’s delegation while Vice President of Tourism Valerie Damaseau led the French St. Martin delegation. During the trip, Meetings took place with representatives from Tour Operator TUI that currently sells seats on KLM. TUI has indicated that they are interested in returning to the destination with a charter flight. St. Maarten has a cooperative campaign with TUI as well as with KLM. Discussions also took place with KLM and Tour Operator Thomas Cook during the trade-meeting segment of the holiday fair.
Johnson said he was delighted to see the attendees’ interests in Sint Maarten/St. Martin. “Vakantiebeurs Utrecht was an opportunity for us as a dual destination to provide an update about the island,” said Johnson. At the holiday trade fair, visitors received a wealth of information about vacation opportunities on St. Maarten.
Recent reports show that over two-thirds of the visitors to the Trade Fair expressed interest in spending their holiday vacations outside Europe, which makes the market even more attractive for St. Maarten in its bid to diversify its visitor base. The economy in The Netherlands has been doing very well, and this has led to a drastic increase in holiday spending for the Dutch traveller. Based on a survey of visitors carried out by the holiday fair organisers, sixty-four (64) per cent of the visitors to the fair wanted to receive information about the destination that they were interested in while 63 per cent were seeking new vacation hotspots to make memorable experiences.
Johnson said St. Maarten would continue to work with tourism partners and stakeholders to attract more European visitors to the destination by increasing airlift. Recent reports on tourists travel trends show that Dutch travellers spent 19.8 billion Euros on holidays, which is a two per cent increase over 2017, and of that amount, 16.6 billion Euros was spent outside the Netherlands.
Dutch travellers are now spending more time on holiday with an average of 8 nights and took 22. 2 million vacations in 2018. Johnson said, “This translates to 83 per cent of the Dutch population taking a holiday last year with an increased number of travellers flying to their holiday destination, which is good news for St. Maarten.” “We have had several meetings with airlines/tour operators during the holiday fair, and we plan to continue with those discussions in the coming weeks,” Johnson said.
Director of the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau (STB) May-Ling Chun said: "being back at the holiday fair this year after missing 2018, allowed us to educate travel consumers about new tours, excursions, and our properties."
Vakantiebeurs Utrecht took place from January 10-13 and at the Utrecht Jaarbeurs and included over 50 press/travel trade media representatives. Preparations are already underway for the 50th edition of the holiday fair, which will take place from January 15-19, 2020.
The travel writers and some bloggers were guests at a destination awareness activity organised by Sint Maarten/St. Martin that included a quiz about the island. According to Chun representatives from the Dutch TV drama ‘Goede tijden, slechte tijden,’ inquired about filming opportunities.
