Above: St Martin

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Martin is looking to drive tourism growth by tapping into the nearby Puerto Rican market, according to the French territory’s Tourist Office.

In a release, the Saint Martin Tourist Office said it had spent three “intense years” visiting the Puerto Rican market, stressing the “importance of the island’s market and its potential for Saint Martin’s tourism industry.”

This week, the Tourist Office announced the launch of several new marketing initiatives to court Puerto Rican visitors, including a partnership with marketing firm Paradigm Associates and a series of new air and land-inclusive travel packages for Puerto Rican tourists.

“Perhaps the most attractive features of Saint Martin for Puerto Rican visitors are its really, honestly friendly people, the fact that you can use the US dollar for all transactions, that Spanish is widely spoken and that it is truly a destination where Puerto Rican will have more fun,” said Gregoire Dumel, general director of the Saint Martin Tourist Office.

St Martin is accessed from Puerto Rico on daily nonstop service by JetBlue, along with recently-launched flights on Seaborne Airlines.