St Maarten, St Martin, Saba, Statia, Anguilla, St Kitts and St Barth Are All on One Island for This Caribbean Conference
It’s one of the most important epicenters in the Caribbean: the neighborhood of islands surrounding St Maarten, from Saba to Statia, Anguilla to St Barth in the northeastern corner of the region. It’s a network of destinations all centered at the Princess Juliana International Airport, the region’s most essential air hub, and it forms a diverse, rich tapestry of places to visit, all with unique identities and offerings, cultures, languages and products.
That’s what makes St Maarten’s SMART trade show so important: it brings them together.
For the week of March 31, all of these destinations, joined by hoteliers, executives and other stakeholders, come together for an expo and conference, joined by travel agents, media, suppliers and buyers.
And it’s not just the islands around St Maarten — destinations from Guadeloupe to Antigua, St Kitts to Barbados, Curacao to Dominica. They’re all bringing executives and hoteliers for days of business events and meetings.
The event kicks off on March 31 with the opening ceremony at the Sonesta Maho (one of our favorite all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, and the top all-inclusive in the destination that just opened a new adults-only club), followed by two days of meetings followed by a pair of tour and excursion days to get out and explore St Maarten and its neighboring islands.
The tourism event comes as St Maarten and St Martin are posting strong tourism data numbers, as St Maarten Tourism Minster Grisha Heyliger-Marten recently told Caribbean Journal.
St Maarten also just saw the debut of its completely transformed airport, a project nearly a decade in the making that has meant a completely revamped visitor experience, with new arrival and departure halls.
It’s all part of an exciting time for this northeastern corner of the Caribbean, from the luxury hotels of St Barth to the hiking trails of Statia to the pristine sands of Anguilla.
