International Travel Recovery bodes well for Sint Maarten Tourism Sector in 2024?

SINT MAARTEN (COMMENTARY – By Roddy Heyliger) - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently announced that air travel recovery since the pandemic has reached 99 per cent of pre-pandemic levels where travel demand has exceeded 2019 levels based on airline data up to and including November 2023.

The Asia-Pacific region continued to report the strongest year-to-year results of +63.8 per cent while all other regions showed improvements compared to the previous year. North American carriers saw traffic increase by 18.6 per cent in November compared to November 2022.

This good news also comes with the news recently shared by the Princess Juliana International Airport Operating Company (PJIAE) that the new departure hall is ready to welcome all passengers by the end of January 2024, while the new check-in area will open in a phased approach starting at the end of the month. Construction of the new Arrival Hall is anticipated to be finalized by the second quarter of 2024.

The various investments and upgrades give the airport the increased flexibility to meet the growth demand in the future and the terminal once everything has been completed will be able to accommodate 2.5 million passengers.

PJIAE milestones in 2024 comes just in time as international travel is expected to make a full recovery pre-pandemic levels.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that an estimated 1.3 billion tourists travelled internationally between January and December 2023, ending 2023 at 88 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, adding that we should see a full recovery by the end of 2024.

Europe was the world's most visited region supported by intra-regional demand and travel from the United States. The Americas reached 90 per cent of pre-pandemic visitors. The Caribbean was one of the regions where some destinations reported double-digit growth in international arrivals in 2023 when compared to 2019.

International tourism receipts based on preliminary figures the UNWTO says, reached US$1.4 trillion in 2023, or about 93 per cent of the US$1.5 trillion earned by destinations in 2019.

Tourism is the lifeline for certain tourism destinations including Sint Maarten. It is critical for destinations, businesses, and communities to be able to recover from the past challenges in order to have a sustainable future.

A sustainable continuous recovery is key for Sint Maarten’s economy and according to the UNWTO, international tourism is well on track to fully recover pre-pandemic levels in 2024 despite global economic challenges such as high inflation and weaker global economic output from the main industrial nations, as well as geopolitical tensions and conflicts in different parts of the world.

Roddy Heyliger