SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – The St. Maarten Timeshare Association, along with the full support of the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association, stands with their partner hotels in requesting regulation of the noise pollution across the island and applauds the efforts of the current Minister of TEATT, Ludmila de Weever for tackling this issue.
For far too long, this issue has fallen on deaf ears. For years many residents and visitors have been bombarded with noise that goes well into the early hours of the morning, creating unnecessary work for our already stretched law enforcement. While some businesses are mindful and take their neighbours into consideration, others blatantly do not, thus we all suffer.
On any given night there are annoyances of multiple vendors blaring loud music simultaneously. Social media and various travel sites attest to the discomfort and noise pollution that bombards the peace of these neighbourhoods that are faced with inconsiderate neighbours. We understand that entertainment increases the traffic and attraction to an establishment, however it should be done in a way that takes the surrounding environment into consideration.
While we can argue on the lack of proper zoning on the island, the reality is that we are currently faced with a situation that businesses must coexist with hotels and residents of the island.
With an already strained tourist economic recovery due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the lack of proper marketing, the opening of several other islands that are catering their infrastructure to support tourism and a very slow restart of our guests coming back, we cannot continue to operate as though we are in a vacuum and that we are independent of each other.
It is with this background that we call on the Minister of Justice, Anna Richardson, to support the efforts put forward by the minister of TEATT to create a more harmonious environment for everyone.
It is the belief of the association that we can all thrive on St. Maarten if we all work together and find viable solutions. We also believe that proper legislation should be in place to ensure that those who do not understand their corporate, civic and civil responsibility can be guided accordingly. As travel is slated to increase over the next couple of months, we look forward to a quick resolution to this problem.
