St. Maarten, St. Martin and St. Barth Travel News

West Indies Events and the St.Maarten-St.Martin Classic Yacht Regatta Foundation are inviting all Tall Ships to come to St.Maarten in January 2009.

A special course for those large vessels has been added in the fourth classic regatta which will be held during the third week of January.

The Tall ships will not have to pay a fee to participate in the St.Maarten-St.Martin Classic Yacht Regatta.

Tall ships like the Stad Amsterdam and the Star Clipper Ships have shown interest to participate already in previous years. The 245 ft (75.5 m) long Canadian build and based barquentine “Caledonia” is the first ship that has registered and the organization hopes to attract many more.Caledonia carries 1,579 square meters of sail and has 32 guest cabins and 22 crew.

The fourth Invitational St.Maarten-St.Martin Classic Yacht Regatta 2009 kicks off on Thursday January 22nd with a skippers briefing and official openings ceremony.

Effective sailing starts the next day on Friday January 23rd from Great Bay to Marigot where the yachts will be complimentary hosted like the previous years at Fort Louis Marina.

Saturday will be the special Tall Ships Day when all classics and the Tall Ships will start out of the bay in Marigot St.Martin and sail towards the finish line in Great Bay.

Organizers received the authorization from the Sint Maarten Port Authorities to dock the Tall Ships at the Pointe Blanche cruise ship pier so that passengers can disembark and an on board VIP reception can be held after the regatta that Saturday evening.

The general public will have the possibility to visit the ships on Sunday morning while they are in Great Bay.

The regular schooners, vintage, spirit of tradition and classic yachts in the regatta will set sail again that Sunday morning for the last regatta day towards Anguilla and return to the finish in Great Bay in the afternoon.

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St Maarten — DELTA will introduce new Boeing 737-700 aircraft on the Atlanta - St. Maarten route effective December 20, 2008. . It will operate DL439/440 daily except Day 6 to cope with demand for the destination. The airline has added extra daily flights to Aruba and the Dominican Republic but only an extra weekly flight here. The Caribbean is a perennial favourite spot for tourists during the winter months, and Delta is making it easier and more convenient for customers to reach their preferred beach destination,” Miguel Lopez, regional director of Sales for Central America and the Caribbean for Delta said in the article.

Also effective December 20, 2008, 8th weekly service to St. Maarten will be added, operated by 737-700 as well.

DL439 ATL0945 - 1435SXM 73W x6
DL439 ATL0945 - 1435SXM 757 6
DL446 ATL1050 - 1540SXM 73W 6

DL440 SXM1535 - 1900ATL 73W x6
DL440 SXM1535 - 1900ATL 757 6
DL445 SXM1640 - 2005ATL 73W 6

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St Maarten, August 1. Press release by BlueOceanVillas

Royal Caribbean, a successful and profitable international company, has been in business for more than 30 years, has approximately 40,000 employees, a fleet of 40 ships that carry approximately four million passengers per year and generates about four billion dollars of gross revenue. It is the second largest cruise ship company next to Carnival and is currently developing projects in Honduras, St. Lucia, St. Maarten and St. Kitts.

In St. Maarten, they are developing and converting what is now an industrial area into a waterfront esplanade with hotels, condos, retail stores, restaurants, a yacht marina – something that ultimately will look like St. Tropez.

They are also building a new dock to accommodate Royal Caribbean’s new class of Genesis mega-ships, the first one to be called Oasis of the Seas scheduled for launch in late 2009. The new dock/pier, to be completed at the end of November 2008, will be juxtaposed to the existing Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise Pier that was completed in 2001.  The Oasis of the Seas, will be able to dock alongside the yet-to-be named pier.

The Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facilities expansion will keep the island on the cusp of cruise tourism development, an industry that has seen a decline in the Caribbean in 2007. However, St. Maarten’s numbers continued to grow due to the island’s commitment to development, improvement and increasing its market share.

Carnival is the biggest investor in the project with a contribution of US $34.5 million.The loan from Carnival is repayable in 20 years at 5.9 per cent per annum. To generate income for the port and help facilitate repayment of the loan, Carnival Corporation guarantees approximately 700,000 passengers to St. Maarten annually, while it will have one fixed berth on the pier and three on the existing pier.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has contributed $10 million and has also guaranteed a fixed number of passengers annually. In turn, the company will have one fixed berth on the new pier and one at the existing one.

Refinancing of existing harbour loans by RBTT Merchant Bank for $84 million rounds off the multi-million-dollar upgrade that makes St. Maarten the proud owner of the largest port in the Northeastern Caribbean.

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St. Maarten - July 31 - BlueOceanVillas.com

Some welcome news concerning the state of the local economy during the first half of the year was reported by government. While the cost of living undoubtedly has increased, government earnings on a cash basis and the collection of taxes are both up.

Some airlines have reduced the number of flights to St. Maarten, but the number of stay-over visitors increased by 5.2 per cent compared to 2007 and all source markets except the Caribbean recorded growth. Occupancy rates went up by four per cent over the first quarter and eight per cent over the second.

While the local cruise sector is faced with demand shifting away from the Caribbean, the number of passenger arrivals dropped only slightly, by 3.8 per cent, over the first quarter and the number of ship calls by 78 over the first six months, the latter compensated largely by the use of larger vessels.

All in all, “The Friendly Island” appears to be doing all right, certainly compared to some of the other islands, while the Caribbean as a whole is also doing better than some other regions when it comes to tourism. That American Airlines, US market leader in the region, announced an increase rather than decrease of direct flights from the mainland to St. Maarten reinforces the view that the island remains a highly popular destination.

It’s far too early to rejoice, however. Some of the worst impact when it comes to world fuel and food prices as well as the real estate crisis in the US may still be felt in the comings months and years. The drop in pre-construction sales in various major tourism projects on the island is an indication of that.

The outlook for the rest of the year is positive and gives government cause to be cautiously optimistic. It’s important, however, to keep in mind that things can change for the worse very quickly. Under the circumstances, working more on diversifying tourism in terms of both secondary markets and times of the year continues to be important. Today’s good tidings do not change that.

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has announced that it will again offer flights between St Barth and St Maarten starting on July 15 in partnership with Tropical Airlines. (aka Air Antilles Express)

Air Antilles Express is an airline based in Guadeloupe. It is a regional airline operating scheduled services between the islands of the French West Indies and to St Lucia. Its services are operated by Air Guyane using 2 ATR 42 aircraft under the name of Air Antilles.

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THE NETHERLANDS - Following a meeting of the Island Council, the former Dutch colony of St Maarten has agreed to the creation of a supervisory board to regulate the island’s finances.

Curaçao, another Caribbean island and former Dutch colony, has already agreed to the same measure.

The government in The Hague is involved in a restructuring of the constitutional status of the Netherlands Antilles but was only prepared to grant greater autonomy to Curaçao and St Maarten if there were improvements in law enforcement and in their finances.

The creation of a financial supervisory board to scrutinise the islands’ budgets satisfies the second condition as far as the Netherlands is concerned.

The board will be located in Curaçao and will be chaired by Hans Weitenberg, the former director of Statistics Netherlands.

In Curaçao there was fierce opposition to financial supervision, which many people regard as a form of re-colonisation. There were loud protests in the capital Willemstad and the Island Council initially rejected the idea. It was only when a new Island Council took office in 2007 that the agreement was ratified.

Things were quieter in St Maarten, where there was no public protest and the Island Council took less than an hour to make its decision.

The introduction of financial supervision will be discussed by the State Ministerial Council (the Dutch council of ministers and the minister plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) on Friday.
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American Airlines has put pretty much every destination in the Caribbean region on sale, as long as you book by the end of this month.

At the time we checked, an early September round-trip between St. Maarten and Miami. AA is selling seats for $388.

As with all airfare sales, sometimes you’ll find great deals and other times it won’t work out. Just remember: The money you save may go towards luggage fees if you overpack!

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Note : for Dutch speaking readers only …..  sorry ……

PHILIPSBURG - De Eilandsraad van Sint Maarten is maandagmiddag (lokale tijd) akkoord gegaan met de instelling van een toezicht op de financiën van het eiland. Het toezicht is voor Nederland een belangrijke voorwaarde in het proces van staatkundige herstructurering van de Nederlandse Antillen. Eerder ging Curaçao al akkoord.

De aangenomen Algemene Maatregel van Bestuur financieel toezicht houdt in dat de begrotingen van de eilanden de komende jaren nauwgezet tegen het licht wordt gehouden door een op Curaçao gevestigd college financieel toezicht. Het college staat onder leiding van voorzitter Hans Weitenberg, oud-directeur van het Centraal Planbureau.

Sint Maarten en Curaçao willen autonome landen worden binnen het Koninkrijk. Nederland gaat daarmee alleen akkoord als de rechtshandhaving en de financiële structuur worden verbeterd. Het laatste punt lijkt nu met het aannemen van de Algemene Maatregel geregeld. De Rijksministerraad bespreekt vrijdag 11 juli het instellen van het toezicht.

Rekolonisatie

Op Curaçao is de oppositie fel tegen de maatregel, omdat die wordt gezien als een vorm van ‘rekolonisatie’. De aanname van het voorstel leidde twee weken geleden tot heftige demonstraties op het eiland, waarbij wegen moesten worden afgezet.

Nadat het voorstel ’s avonds laat werd aangenomen, zochten groepjes boze demonstranten ruzie in de buurt van cafés waar veel Nederlanders komen. Een Antilliaanse man liep daarbij een schedelbasisfractuur op.

Op Sint Maarten was maandag daarentegen geen demonstrant te zien. De behandeling in de Eilandsraad duurde nog geen uur. Daarna werd de maatregel unaniem aangenomen.

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The first sailings for the world’s largest cruise ship, the 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas, have been detailed. The Royal Caribbean International mega ship will be based in Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will make its maiden voyage on December 12, 2009.

Just in case you have had your head burried in the sand of late: When launched in late 2009, the ‘Big O’ (’Oasis of the Seas’) will be the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. She will span 16 decks, encompass 220,000 gross registered tons, carry 5,400 guests, and feature 2,700 staterooms and have it’s own ‘Central park’. The ship will homeport in Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 2010, she will be joined by a sister ship, the ‘Bid A’ (’Allure of the Seas’). The ‘class’ of ship itself will be called the ‘Oasis Class’.

The ship, which will feature a series of ‘neighbourhoods’, will run 19 seven-nigh eastern Caribbean sailings to St Thomas, St Maarten and the Bahamas.

From May 1, 2010, the vessel will also run a western Caribbean itinerary calling at the line’s private resort of Laberdee in Haiti, Falmouth in Jamaica and Cozumel in Mexico.

Approaches to the dock at St Maarten will be dredged to accommodate the 220,000-tonne ship. Passenger facilities at St Maarten will be improved.

Bookings for Oasis of the Seas are due to open on September 3 this year.

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