St. Maarten’s Return to Prominence and Lessons for Other Cruise Destinations By MICO CASCAIS, Principal, Mico Cascais Inc., Veteran Shore Excursions Executive & Destination Experience Expert
F
or many years St. Maarten has been the prominent destination in the Eastern Caribbean, with stateof-the-art port Facilities, the allure of two nations in one island, 37 square miles with 37 magnificent beaches, friendly people and diverse choices available for all guests’ demographics to enjoy and maximize their experience during their visit. As a matter of fact, it would be considered a prominent destination anywhere. As a cruise executive, traveling to Caribbean destinations was a significant part of my scope of responsibility, either as the Carnival Cruise Line’s shore excursions business owner or part of the FCCA Operations Team, we engaged the stakeholders—both the public and private sectors—in order to ensure delivery of the best overall passenger experience of the destination, even down to checking if the garbage pick-up time coincides correctly with ship arrivals so passengers see clean streets. In 60 FIRST QUARTER 2018 | TRAVEL & CRUISE
my opinion, these destination ambassadors and the many stories they and each destination can tell collectively form the overall experience cruise guests desire today. St. Maarten was always a go-to reference when often asked, “What destination does it right?” With that said, leadership puts you in a position of constantly being challenged by your neighboring destinations, just like a sports team that wins the league title and sees everyone striving to play better against them the next season. But great teams also always look to improve, even after winning the title, and the Port St. Maarten executive management team had already taken the position of looking ahead to the future both in infrastructure and the overall guest experience. The parallel efforts of better infrastructure and guest experience were well underway when on September 6, 2017 Hurricane Irma made a direct hit on St. Maarten with catastrophic results in some areas.
The traumatic experience of going through a Category 5+ hurricane was palpable within the content of any dialogue, and the stories were both heroic and horrific. The weeks to follow were difficult, as uncertainty became a common topic, especially as it pertained to when cruise ships would return. For a destination so dependent on cruise tourism, there was no time to be discouraged by the catastrophic impact. It was time to go to work and unite all stakeholders with a focused common goal: bring St. Maarten back to not just its previous prominence, but better than ever, one step at a time. The Port team and I collaborated on an aggressive approach, starting with two consecutive days of educational workshop sessions that brought in hundreds of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors—all were invited to attend. What happen next was truly remarkable and will positively impact St. Maarten for years to come.
