French side woes
If you did not know it yet, the French side is hurting. The economy is not doing well and Chamber of Commerce President Raymond Helligar is sounding the alarm and calling the elected officials to action.
Considering the seriousness of the situation, his argument that government by now should have engaged the chamber in talks to find solutions certainly appears valid.
He says the burden of fiscal and social charges is the main problem and perhaps government can do something with his suggestion to create schemes whereby certain charges are waived when a business is doing badly, as apparently is done in Guadeloupe.
But the problem is that one of the main factors lies beyond the sphere of influence of local or even national officials: the euro. While the French side certainly has a lot of European tourism, as is evident from daily 747 flights from Paris, the North American market is still very important for that side of the island as well.
Even if they stayed on the Dutch side, most visitors during their stay would visit the French side more than once and provide income for shops, restaurants and the like. Because the euro is so high compared to the US dollar, however, that is happening less and less, although one might not necessarily think so after spending a weekend day at Orient Bay.
The fact of the matter is that Grand Case and Marigot are hurting, to the extent where the latter is described by Helligar as a ghost town after 5:00pm. It is more than obvious that something needs to be done.
It’s a public secret that one of the factors that make people go to the French side less is the alcohol controls on motorists by Gendarmes. Everyone knows, or should know, that you should not drink and drive, but many motorists used to drink, for example, some wine during dinner and not think about it twice.
That situation has changed with the frequent use of the breathalysers and several visitors have already ended up spending the night in a cell and having to pay a considerable amount of cash to get out. Nobody is suggesting the Gendarmes stop the alcohol controls, because driving while under the influence is illegal and dangerous to those doing it as well as to others, but considering that there are no real highways on the island, perhaps the way the controls are held and violators are dealt with can make a difference.
St. Maarten/St. Martin is a tourism island and it is important for authorities on both sides of “The Friendly Island” to keep that in mind.
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