L’île de Saint-Barthélemy (Petites Antilles) : une destination du tourisme de luxe

Evolution of vulnerability to marine inundation in Caribbean islands of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy

“…Despite their similarities, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy have historical, economic, and social differences: (i) in 2016, the Growth Domestic Product was 40000 euros/capita in Saint-Barthélemy, whereas it was 16000 euros/capita in Saint-Martin [45,47]; (ii) since 1986, the population growth was 25 significantly higher in Saint-Martin than Saint-Barthélemy [44,47], even if it was almost similar in 1960; (iii) the protection of populations against natural hazards benefited from a Natural Hazard Prevention Plan (called Plan de Prévention des Risques Naturels, PPRN in French [62]) implemented in 2011 in Saint-Martin but not in Saint-Barthélemy; and (iv) the economic strategies of both islands were different (quality/quantity and luxurious/mass for Saint-Barthelemy vs. Saint-Martin) [55,63],…”

“…Notably, we observed that Saint-Barthélemy favored luxurious touristic infrastructures, such as villas and small luxurious hotels [55,63,64] and "entre-soi" (homogeneous community of wealthy people) [66,69]. Residents and political authorities decided to control urban development at Saint-Barthélemy to reduce potential negative effects of mass tourism [63,64]. The increased administrative autonomy from the French government, along with the tax exemption, allowed Saint-Barthélemy to attract many rich residents and companies [66].…”

“…The population increase in Saint-Barthélemy was slower than that in Saint-Martin and is 3.5 time smaller in Saint-Barthélemy than in Saint-Martin in 2018 (Figure 3 and Table 1). This could be due to (i) the smaller size of Saint-Barthélemy [48,56], (ii) difficulty to access Saint-Barthélemy by plane and boat, in comparison to the accessibility of Saint-Martin [55,63,64], and (iii) different political and economic strategies of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin. Notably, we observed that Saint-Barthélemy favored luxurious touristic infrastructures, such as villas and small luxurious hotels [55,63,64] and "entre-soi" (homogeneous community of wealthy people) [66,69].…”

“…This could be due to (i) the smaller size of Saint-Barthélemy [48,56], (ii) difficulty to access Saint-Barthélemy by plane and boat, in comparison to the accessibility of Saint-Martin [55,63,64], and (iii) different political and economic strategies of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin. Notably, we observed that Saint-Barthélemy favored luxurious touristic infrastructures, such as villas and small luxurious hotels [55,63,64] and "entre-soi" (homogeneous community of wealthy people) [66,69]. Residents and political authorities decided to control urban development at Saint-Barthélemy to reduce potential negative effects of mass tourism [63,64].…”

Responses of populations for coping with an extreme event: Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy in the wake of hurricane Irma

“…At the beginning of the 1980s, even before the law of tax exemption, these islands had already started a "tourist and residential revolution" (Sanguin, , p. 65, 1982 based on an upper-class, American-dominated clientele, rejecting mass tourism and aiming for luxury tourism (Magnan, 2008;Theng, 2014). Saint-Barthelemy operates selective tourism facilitated by transport infrastructures which are insufficiently sized to accommodate boats and large aircraft, but which has the disadvantage of creating a partial dependence with the international airports of Juliana (Saint-Martin) and Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe).…”