The four partners organizing the Sint Maarten / Saint Martin Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART) are looking forward to a great trade event this week. Starting with an opening cocktail party at The Westin Dawn Beach Casino & Spa, followed by two days of events and incorporating a spectacular show at L’Anse Marcel Beach.

The L’Association des Hoteliers de St. Martin, Saint Martin Tourism Office  in conjunction with the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association are expecting tour operators, travel agents and travel writers to visit the island, as well as local hoteliers, activity providers and vendors. This week’s events, to be held at Rainforest Adventure Park, Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa as well as L’ Anse Marcel Beach, already have over 350 subscribed visitors varying from international tourism buyers and agents, hotel and activity suppliers as well as island industry vendors or tourism officials. SMART has been an internationally renowned business event for over 15 years, as the yearly exhibition grew to be the largest tradeshow in the Northeastern Caribbean.

Next to a reinforced binational character, new elements were added to the event. Apart from spectacular opening and closing parties, hoteliers, operators and agents are invited to take part in activities getting to know the island. Rainforest Adventure Park, to open this summer, will provide for a sneak preview on its grounds. Secondly, a special activity Friday is installed to further get to experience Sent Maarten activities like Butterfly Farm, Aqua Mania Adventures Snorkel Tours, 12 Metre Regatta Sailing, Donut Dream’s Barbecue Boats and Topper’s Rum Distillery.

Another element the organizing parties focused on was further expanding the learning experience as the world of tourism changes rapidly. As the partners don’t want to miss out on these developments, a special offer for Small Hotels was launched to be able to enter SMART.  Amongst others, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), MasterCard, Expedia, TripAdvisor and AltaVista AG (official Google technology providers for hotels) and EPIC will share their newest insights within workshops at SMART.

A fourth change is the increased involvement of local business in the event. Various supplying industries to the hotel and tourism business have joined the event as a vendor. For that cause, the tradeshow venue Westin has doubled the area available for Sint Maarten / Saint Martin businesses portraying their products.

Registration and additional details can be obtained via email at smart@shta.com  and/or by phone at 542-0108.

Layer 1