SHTA, CLT Start Work on 2025 Events Calendar
This July 2nd, the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) and Caribbean Liquors & Tobacco (CLT) jointly kicked off production of the 2025 SHTA Events Calendar. Island organizations can submit their events for 2025 for promotion by the association and its partners.
Though many events supported by the beverage distributor have been featured on the calendar’s previous editions, it is the first time CLT will be its main supporter. Brand Manager Gisele Greaux of CLT: “We are thrilled to actively cooperate on this yearly tradition, and to play our part in showing the island is a vibrant and lively destination”. Amongst many others, CLT is island distributor of world famous brands like Hennessy, Moët&Chandon, and Disaronno. CLT will announce the brands of choice featuring the 2025 calendar along the road to the New Year’s distribution campaign.
In 2016, SHTA research into the attraction of St. Maarten to tourists led to the conclusion that its liveliness was one of seven key factors making the island unique within the Caribbean region. With the expanding annual calendar, SHTA tries to on-brand amplify the message of private sector, NGO and Government entities making that key feature a reality with their events.
A traditional element of the calendar is promoting island art and music by highlighting a cultural icon on top. Next to carnival scenes, previous famous cultural icons were culture advocate Clara Reyes (2020), steel pan celebrity Isidore “Dow” York (2021), calypsonian “King Beaubeau” Brooks (2023) and painters Roland Richardson (2022) and Ruby Bute (2024). The 2025 cultural icon will be announced shortly; SHTA remains open for cultural icon nominations for its 2026 edition and beyond.
The 2025 calendar will be the largest edition thus far measured in print and digital dispersion. The 2024 printed edition ran out of stock halfway through 2024, making further expansion a necessity. Apart from active distribution throughout the island, SHTA membership and beyond, the calendar remains an important “business card” for the destination towards visitors, travel agents, foreign dignitaries and journalists. As has been the case over the past three years, the calendar will also be featured in the association’s official in-room hotel book VISIT St. Maarten / St. Martin and its website visitstmaarten.com.
Should organizations or individuals have calendars from previous years still, SHTA welcomes those returning. Apart from requests for previous calendars as a collector’s item, SHTA wants to contribute to proper recycling and re-use of the A0 calendars.
SHTA looks forward to jointly work on the calendar with CLT. The association is also grateful for the ongoing annual cooperation on the calendar with Grant Thornton, Telem Group, Amasterdam, the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau and l’Office du Tourisme. The association calls on companies, NGOs and Government entities planning events to submit their dates for the calendar to events@shta.com before November 1st 2024. As always, island residents can reserve free copies via the same e-mail address.