St. Maarten Tourism Product Continues Unchanged because of Sunday Power Outage
Tourism of St. Maarten, the Caribbean Island famed for its 37 pristine beaches, wide variety of cuisines and activities remains relatively unchanged regardless of a recent fire in its energy plant. This was shared today by the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA), comprising the vast majority of the tourism sector on the Dutch side of the island.
This past Sunday, two of the ten generators of the national power company GEBE caught fire. Though the fire was extinguished swiftly, until new generators are in place power capacity on island is temporarily reduced and necessitates power cuts to compensate. Whereas SHTA regrets the recent reduced capacity of St. Maarten’s main electricity net, it underlines this should not be hindering visitors from having great St. Maarten holidays as they are used to.
As an island country, the St. Maarten tourism sector is well equipped for dealing with electrical shortages caused by natural circumstances. All hotels are capable of swift alternation to generators. Net versus generator power mostly transfers without the visitor noticing. The same accounts for many individual properties booked via recognized vacation rental agencies.
Apart from its 37 world famous beaches, St. Maarten’s offers a wide array of activities on land, on water, and under the sea. These activities in most cases run independent of the main energy network.
The same applies to one of the island’s other famed attractions, its wide variety of cuisines and beverages. As most restaurants are equipped with generators in case of a temporary power outage, the true St. Maarten culinary experience remains on offer.
The third unique feature of St. Maarten, its binational character, further diminishes noticeable effects of the temporary power challenge. For as far as effects of the Sunday outage can be witnessed at all, the French side energy provision is separate and continues.