Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- Old Gin House NV director Paul Boetekees has written a letter to Statia Government, expressing his worries about the lack of an comprehensive Post-Pandemic Marketing Plan.

“We fully understand that you have taken measures to protect the population against the virus, given the small-scale availability of care. For the main markets in terms of tourists, strict rules apply, including a mandatory quarantine of 14 days”, according to Boetekees in his letter.

Boetekees also points out that it looks like, for the remainder of the year, few tourist will visit the island, while business travelers and incoming Government workers from the Netherlands are not traveling as of yet.

Few alternatives

In his letter Boetekees points out that the island has few economic alternatives to tourism. He makes the comment, pointing to rumors that things are not well at the Oil Terminal.

“One of the deeper and long-standing problems that I have been seeing for some time now, but certainly now, is the lack of a coherent strategy regarding the marketing of the island. The so-called Destination Promotion. In 2018 and 2019, local entrepreneurs have already tried several times to get more action on this. Unfortunately, without a positive result”, according to Boetekees.

The director remarks that plans have been made, but too little or nothing has been done with it. “It seems that the local tourist office has no money to carry out the plans and / or lacks expertise and execution power”.

Conference

Boetekees suggests that a Zoom conference be set up with the various stakeholders, such as Government, Tourism Office, entrepreneurs of the Tourism Sector and airlines.

Bye means of the conference, the director of Old Gin House NV wants to get to the installation of a committee which will work on a 3-year tactical plan in attracting more tourism to the island.

Some suggested items suggested by Boetekees to be addressed are an update of the St. Eustatius brand, the building of a storyline, press releases and vlogs, targeted online advertisements and social media in the defined resource markets, the visiting and inviting Dive Market travel agents, Direct Sales to East Coast, articles in newspapers such as – New York Times, Telegraph, Boston Globe Virtual presentations and seminars on Diving and recreation on St. Eustatius to name a few.

---

Also read:

• 
  Traveling abroad?
• 
  Curaçao Seeks ‘Level Playing Field’ for Local Airlines
• 
  First Edition of Bonaire by Night on Friday, August 2
• 
  Edsel Winklaar appointed interim director at Selibon N.V.
• 
  Bonaire Human Rights Organization advocates for Bonaire in Azerbaijan