POINTE BLANCHE--Despite being some 83,000 cruise passengers ahead of the period January-August 2010, St. Maarten saw a sixteen per cent difference between projected cruise arrivals and actual cruiser numbers for August, mainly because of cruise ships cancellations due to the passing of Tropical Storm Emily.
Only 60,443 cruisers visit last month when 71,991 were forecast by St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies. The August figure was 26.3 per cent less than the actual arrivals for same month in 2010.
The eight-month cruise arrival total, based on figures from the Harbour Group, now stands at 1,107,577 cruise passengers and 397 ship calls. Fourteen of those ship calls were made in August, the lowest number so far for the year. Four ship calls, amounting to some 19,400 cruise passengers, were cancelled due to Emily.
If the cancellations had not occurred, August would have seen arrival figures better than projected and one more ship call than June, which had 17 ship calls and tied with July.
Barring any ship call losses for the reminder of the Atlantic hurricane season (ending in November) or in December the country is still on track to break the 1.5 million cruise passenger mark this year. September is projected to bring 59,945 cruise passengers.
The millionth passenger for the year arrived in July, the earliest this milestone has been clocked and surpassed in the 10 consecutive years the country has hosted a million or more passengers.
St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies CEO Mark Mingo, who is currently in Sweden on a working visit, told The Daily Herald the country continued to fare well in the cruise sector and more efforts had been made to sustain the growth.
Mingo, like Deputy Prime Minister/Harbour Affairs Minister Theo Heyliger, has serious concerns about the significant damage to Cruise Pier I, which is in need of repairs. The harbour and Dutch construction firm Ballast Nedam are "in discussions" about who will take responsibility for the damage to the four-berth pier and foot the bill of some US $10-15 million.
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