Tuesday, December 1, 2009
St. Maarten! What if they held a Charter Boat Show and nobody came?
Although you might not know it, as there has been little local rah rah rah this year, the MYBA St. Maarten Charter Show opens its doors on Friday. According to the MYBA website, 28 yachts are taking part and that’s down from the 38 that attended last year. The Concourse de Chef will again be a highlight along with the Taste of St. Maarten and the Yacht Hop. With high bridge and mooring fees still plaguing yachts entering St. Maarten, and the Charter Boat Show in Antigua cranking-up on the 7th, it will be interesting to see just how much support the SXM show receives this year. A poor turnout and bad press could sound the death knell for an event that started out with such fanfare and promise. There’s no doubt that the marine industry benefits from this show, and right now they need all the support they can get. But what about the local population, what would they think if the Exhibition should fold? Well, frankly Scarlet, they don’t give a damn, and that’s a shame. Poor local PR is worse than no PR and MYBA have only themselves to blame for that. The MYBA Charter Yacht Show runs from December 4 - 7
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2 comments:
The St Martin show pretty much sealed its fate when they decided to go up against Antigua in the same time slot forcing most brokers to make a Antigua or St Martin decision.
Which show would you pay to attend... One with twenty-eight boats or one with one hundred and five?
To explain the fiasco one should look at the whole picture:
SMMTA = St Maarten Marine Trades Association - that would be an organization of trades people, correct?
SCYE = St Maarten Charter Yacht Exhibition - that would be yachts on exhibit for charter, correct?
MYBA = Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association, correct?
OK. So
1. You have an organization of Marine Trades people run by marina managers and yacht "support" people. (totally not trades people!) The Marina managers and yacht support people on St Maarten historically have no interest in marine trades people supporting themselves unless they get a "cut", (although they were happy to try to promote the show to trades people, asking them to pay large amounts of sponsorship money so they could fill thier marinas earlier.) Recipe for disaster #1
2. SCYE - that would be a Charter Yacht Exhibition. Not a trades exhibit. No consideration was taken for the charter community, creating a bad vibe for St Maarten. The main reason Charter Brokers book St Maarten is because it is close to St Barth's. SXM is not presented as much of a destination for their elite clientel. No effort was made to promote the island itself. Not by SMMTA, not by Tourism not by SCYE, not by MYBA. Recipe for disaster #2
3. MYBA - Um, the M stands for Mediterranean. Does anyone seriously think a Mediterranean organization has interest in a little island in the Caribbean? Don't kid yourselves. They were instrumental in trashing the show - it was their intention all along - they wanted to own the Antigua show, couldn't have it, thought they could scare Antigua into giving up their show, that did not work so they trashed St Maarten. What do they care? Recipe for disaster #3
Disaster #4 on the horizon - St Kitts and Anguilla are developing, including marina facilities. The French side has the ball and is running with it. St Thomas and the British Virgin Islands get better every year with good infrastructure and clean honest marinas. The old SMMTA gang has gotten what they want and are tiptoeing away. But look in their data bases at what they collected. What they do not know is when the yachts don't come to St Maarten all that data they got will get stale. Ah, we'll probably see them in St Kitts after the next rainbow...or all alone in their mansions on the hill.
And a final disaster...The government of St Maarten does not seem to grasp the trickle down economy provided by the visiting yachts. They opt to kill that golden egg laying goose - gotta get it NOW! If they think the itty bitty tiny lessening on bridge fees to a few small yachts has made an impression on anyone then they need to get their heads examined. Or better yet, go to the Marinas and speak with us Captains - see how we really feel. All that money they have collected, where is it? There is still not even a sidewalk for our crews along the road. Well, let's hope it is going to Tourism and Education, um, no, oh then where is it?
Name witheld upon request - I still need dockage...for now.
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