Business View Caribbean | April 2019

58 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN APRIL 2019 BVC: How would you describe St. Maarten’s state of recovery after the 2017 hurricanes, from your Ministry’s perspective? Minister Johnson: “It is a priority of our Ministry that U.S. pre-clearance comes to St. Maarten shores. We are committed to finalizing that. The economic benefit will be second to none, in my opinion. From flight allocation, flights arriving and back into the U.S., then would arrive at the domestic flight gates. It would open up many opportunities in terms of different markets and gateways in the U.S. for us. The U.S. pre-clearance facility is one of the overall plans for the Airport. In addition to that, we’re very excited about new properties coming on board. Planet Hollywood is a name-brand hotel we’re going to have soon. The Windham is also coming. And Roxxy Beach, a beachfront restaurant/lounge near the Simpson Bay area that is going to be a good add-on for the destination. “More so, the government is looking at an USD$85 million improvement to our port facility. Part of