The 2025 edition of the St. Maarten / St. Martin Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART) closed off officially this Friday, with some tour operators and travel agents still exploring the islands and surrounding islands.
The tradeshow commenced Monday March 31st with individual hotel site visits and a grand opening ceremony at Simpson Bay Resort & Marina. It was the first SMART opening ceremony lighting the skies above its hosting venue with fireworks.
The morning of Tuesday saw the start of over 1,050 preset appointments and additional thousands of informal meetings at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort Casino & Spa Convention Centre, creating new ties between island companies and their foreign and domestic trade partners as well as the revitalization of old connections. The full Wednesday was dedicated to the continuation of above meetings, the traditional tradeshow event.
St. Maarten, St. Martin and surrounding island experiences for visiting trade relations were further expanded upon this year, with explorations of both sides of the island via site visit tours, island excursions and daytrips to Saba and Anguilla. The famous status of “Culinary Capital of the Caribbean” was paid tribute to by “Mystery Dinners” at Sonesta’s Portofino, Tortuga, Spices of India, D’s Beach Bar, Rendez Vous lounge, Mr. Chow and Roma, highlighting the eclectic variety of tastes on island. Princess Juliana International Airport used the “hub lunch” to highlight its newest summer schedule to the regional industry and beyond with St. Maarten carnival dancers. Local event design company Funtopia assisted in creative surprises along the events and tradeshow floor.
The St. Maarten / St. Martin culinary experience received further highlights during a sumptuous “surprise” food, drink and music fest at Wai Beach Club in Orient Bay, with another fireworks closing off a champagne, wine and high end dishes sampling filled evening.
Islands culture was well represented within the weeklong schedule by the steelpans of the Mighty Dow Music Orchestra, wall painting and monument tours, carnival elements and stilt walkers. Local fashion artist / singer Zillah Duzon – Hazel, officially kicked the event off with the St. Maarten anthem.
SMART 2025 marks the 17th edition and silver jubilee celebration of the binational public-privately organized event, intended to highlight tourism and other industries of the island and expand the island economy in the process. The event has historically been organized by the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) in close cooperation with the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau (STB), l’Office du Tourisme (OdT) and Club du Tourisme (CdT). In addition, many local companies support the event in various ways, like St. Maarten Sightseeing Tours, Princess Juliana International Airport, SHOWME Caribbean, Expedia Group, Majestik, WinAir, Port St. Maarten, CC1, Booking Success, Autobev Systems, International Liquors and Tobacco Trading, Flow Business, Only On SXM, Divi Little Bay Resort, Grand Case Beach Club, Oyster Bay Beach Resort, Anguilla Tourism Board & Saba Tourism.
Apart from its unique 5-day expansion, the amount of “buyer companies”, whose acquisition was actively supported by the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau and the Office du Tourisme de St. Martin and their representing companies, is estimated to be the highest of the series till date. The same accounts for the amount of “small tickets” (walkaround tickets) – smaller businesses not opting for a set booth but to mix and mingle with larger counterparts. All 67 booths were totally filled during the last days preceding SMART. Next to small and large hotels and tourism companies, industries represented were amongst others from the sectors of marketing and advertising, training services, media, telecom, retail, restaurants, food & beverage and finance.
SMART 2025 was visited by visitors from 29 countries and destinations.
As booths for the last three editions of the event have consistently been sold out, organizer SHTA recommends interested companies to directly reserve an “early bird” ticket for the new edition before January 31st, 2026 via events@shta.com.