Carrying capacity
News that Marriott has signed for a 455-room hotel and condo development in Gibbs Bay (see Saturday’s paper) is in principle welcome. After all, one of the complaints about St. Maarten’s tourism product has been that it concerns mostly timeshare resorts and vacation homes, but that there are relatively few hotels.
In addition, the lack of big name hotel chains on the island was also seen as a shortcoming. With The Westin, the Sonesta branding of Maho Resort and Great Bay Beach Hotel, the soon-to-open Radisson at Anse Marcel and talks with Hilton on Indigo Beach, that issue is already being addressed, but Marriot would certainly be a welcome addition.
The only thing is that along with joy over another brand-name hotel comes concern about what some see as the continued overdevelopment of especially the Dutch side. The roads are already congested and utility services overburdened, or at least so it seems.
The planned Marriott development that takes up considerable space is also planned close to the Aquarius project at Red Pond, while there are a number of projects in the general vicinity of Oyster Pond/Dawn Beach in addition to what has already been built there. The question is to what extent the infrastructure and other public facilities in the area will be able to carry the extra burden.
It’s not just about the Marriott. At the recent opening of the Coral Beach condo project Tourism Commissioner Roy Marlin called on the owners to use some more land they have in the area to build a hotel as well.
The argument is not that such a project should not be allowed, but that more should be done to evaluate the impact of all these developments carefully and take that into account more. Especially as St. Maarten gets ready to celebrate Enviroweek in the first week of June, it seems appropriate that this issue is highlighted once again.
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