St. Maarten stands to lose GOL flight after March

�If guarantees not in place�

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten stands to lose the year-round GOL Airlines flight from Brazil as of next month if at least seventy seats on the weekly flight cannot be guaranteed. The GOL flight, which commenced in June 2010, opened up the high-spending Brazilian market to St. Maarten and produced (in 2010) almost three times as many visitors from the South American market compared to the year before.

This notwithstanding, the flight sometimes arrived at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) with 40 or fewer passengers, making it financially unfeasible for the airline, considering fuel cost, etc. If St. Maarten, through major Brazilian wholesalers like CVC or government itself, cannot guarantee a minimum of 70 seats, the flight will cease as of March. In fact, the flight already cannot be booked online after March, which indicates that an agreement would have to be hammered out in the first two weeks of February for the flight to continue. The flight starts at S�o Paulo and makes a stop at Manaus, also in Brazil, before continuing to St. Maarten.

St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Head Regina LaBega confirmed the predicament with GOL Airlines. She said a conference call with CVC and St. Maarten's marketing representative for South American Ricardo Roman was to be held on Monday afternoon to determine how the flight could be saved.

The GOL service to St. Maarten meant that the destination had two flights out of Brazil in the high season and one (charter) in the off season. If the weekly flight is dropped, the charter is expected to continue. Additionally, while St. Maarten is responsible for the marketing aspect of GOL, and while former Commissioner of Tourism Frans Richardson said US $300,000 had been committed to the flight, LaBega indicated that she was unsure if those funds were even available for marketing the flight.

Should the new flight come to an end, resorts like Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort as well as The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa will be hit hard, as the Brazilian visitors contributed significantly to their occupancies.

During the current economic slowdown, the South American market has become even more important, given that its economy was only slightly affected and that Brazil has been praised by most economists and international financial experts as the most important emerging market in the world. Brazil has approximately 20 metropolitan areas, with a population in each city of more than a million people, and inhabitants totalling 193 million.

The outbound market (people travelling from Brazil to other destinations) is forecast to grow by 4.5 per cent on average year-on-year to 2020. The primary target markets include S�o Paulo, the interior state of S�o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curtiba, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Recife and Salvador.

However, while St. Maarten-Brazil is definitely a match, given the product (dining, shopping, casinos, excursions and product diversity), the level of service had to be provided accordingly. This starts from the moment of entry, which is 10:30pm on Saturdays. They also depart late. During their stay, Brazilians tend to do things much later in the evening/early morning hours than the typical US traveller, for example, and spend more.

LaBega stated last year that the biggest threat to a sustainable effort from St. Maarten in the South American market was funding, or a lack thereof, and the added bureaucracy in the process of disbursement of funds, marketing or otherwise. She explained that the responsibility for payment had shifted from a separate account managed by the Economic Recovery Fund (ERF), public and private sectors, to the Island Government.

This has, therefore, lengthened the process and diminished the ability to react to marketing opportunities, given the competitive nature of the tourism and marketing industries. LaBega said this level of bureaucracy could present challenges for the brand and product.

Ultimately, she said, this could have an impact on the relationship with the cooperative partners and scheduled service to the destination, given the level and security of sustainable funding, the commitment of funding being inconsistent with the marketing planning cycle, and constraints in funding (liquidity).

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/13140-st-maarten-stands-to-lose-gol-flight-after-march.html

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