The Daily Herald
January 19, 2002
PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA) is welcoming the news that timeshare developers won't
be prevented from taking deposits during the cooling off period.
SMTA believes this will have a positive impact on the industry in St. Maarten and help the overall tourism outlook
for the island. Efforts were being made to implement legislation for the Netherlands Antilles that dealt quite
negatively with the timeshare industry. The European Convention prohibits developers from taking deposits during
the cooling off period and this is said by SMTA to cause sales to "be way down."
Since timeshare is a very small share of the pie in Curacao, SMTA was concerned that this legislation would be
enacted, with little effect in Curacao, but with damaging results here.
A delegation led by SMTA Jim Rosen travelled to Curacao and lobbied for St. Maarten's interests with the judicial
sector. According to a press release from the association, State Secretary Marcel Gumbs lobbied his fellow Ministers
and the parliamentarians to ensure that the interests of St. Maarten were considered.
The legislation was implemented at the beginning of this year and the negative aspects for the timeshare industry
were not included in the legislation.
"This is a major victory for our industry and for St. Maarten," the news release quoted Rosen as saying.
"I wish to thank the individual resorts on St. Maarten, as well as Marcel Gumbs, for their support in this
issue. This serves to illustrate that we need to participate in government on federal level," Rosen added.
He noted that timeshare occupancies in St. Maarten had held up well in the aftermath of September 11, giving the
island a core group of visitors. He also announced that SMTA is working on its own version of a cruise ship conversion
program and is just waiting for final approval from several of the officials to begin the program.
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