Business View Caribbean | April 2019

59 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN APRIL 2019 that will include a permanent home-porting facility. We currently home-port smaller vessels – about 450 passengers come on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to St. Maarten – and we look forward to expanding on that with our port facility. Of course, St. Maarten has always been a unique place, having a Dutch side and a French side, and we have an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the French side that we jointly market the destination. That is effective, and smart, and has propelled us to go throughout Europe, North America, South America, and Canada, where good progress has been made. “Recently, we had the inaugural flight of Jet Blue out of Ft. Lauderdale. It’s a daily service with very low prices. A round trip right now is about USD$250, and an American Airlines round trip for Miami is about the same. The cost of air travel for our local residents and visitors has been reduced because of healthy competition. We’ve also seen the return of Sunwing Airlines from the Canadian market. We’ve had feedback that all airlines are doing well, they’re pleased with the destination, the friendliness of our people, as well as overall restoration work.” BVC: What are the biggest challenges? Minister Johnson: “I am the youngest ever to take the oath of office as Minister on St. Maarten. ST . MAARTEN MINI STRY OF TOUR I SM, ECONOMI C AFFA I RS , TRAFF I C , AND TELECOMMUNI CAT ION