Visitors are flocking to the Caribbean Island of St Maarten The landings. The beaches. The restaurants. The entertainment. The sheer friendliness. St Maarten has always been one of the Caribbean’s most beloved destinations, and now the island is seeing more visitors than ever. That included more than 600,000 stopover visitors in 2024, according to new Tourism Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten, who caught up with Caribbean Journal at the recent Routes Americas conference in Nassau. The renewed influx of visitors comes as the island just hit another milestone, with the completion of the arrival and departure terminals at the Princess Juliana International Airport, which was named Caribbean Airport of the Year in the recent Caribbean Travel Awards. “We are extremely happy that, after so many years, the airport is finally done,” she said. The most intriguing development is that the island is considering a push to implement US Customs pre-clearance at the airport, [...]

Collado: “Committed to advancing multi-destination tourism with Puerto Rico” The Dominican Ministry of Tourism (MITUR) hosted a major event at the Fairmont Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, bringing together over 200 tour operators, travel agencies, and industry leaders from both countries to strengthen tourism ties. The meeting highlighted the introduction of new air routes, with Skyhigh and Arajet joining JetBlue and Frontier in enhancing connectivity between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Tourism Minister David Collado emphasized the commitment to multi-destination tourism, citing the close cultural and geographical ties between the two nations. He showcased key Dominican destinations, including Punta Cana, Santo Domingo, Samaná, and Puerto Plata, while highlighting Miches as an emerging luxury hotspot. Upcoming hotel openings, such as Zemi Miches, Four Seasons Miches, W Punta Cana, and St. Regis Cap Cana, were presented as part of a strategy to diversify the country’s tourism offerings. Additionally, Puerto Plata’s transformation [...]

From Aruba to the Dominican Republic, Marriott is making a big culinary push in the Caribbean It was like a speakeasy. Chef Andres Davila ventured into a mall in downtown Oranjestad, knocked on the door. What was inside was rather stunning. “You go in and it’s like a whole different world,” he says. The tiny local store was Rachell Peterson’s Farm a Cure Fungi, a boutique mushroom farm that has been leading the movement to provide locally-grown, locally-sourced food to Aruba’s restaurants. Davila, the executive chef at the Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino, has been working to incorporate more local produce in the restaurants at the Palm Beach-area property. It’s a challenge: if you buy enough to support 13 different restaurants, you could leave the island without much local produce left. And Aruba’s exceedingly dry climate doesn’t make it an agricultural hotbed. But that’s where Peterson comes in, with her [...]