By the Caribbean Journal staff
St Maarten is having a very good cruise season, according to the latest report from Port St Maarten.
The cruise destination is reporting 15 percent growth over its projections for the first half of 2018, officials said this week.
The port is also expecting a strong upcoming high season “similar to pre-Hurricane Irma levels,” according to a statement.
More than 733,000 cruise passengers visited the island between January and June across 230 cruise ship calls.
“Starting in October, destination St Maarten will see an increase in the number of European cruise lines that will call at the port,” Port St Maarten said in a statement. “This will further add to current forecast numbers for the high season bringing us to the level of cruise calls and passengers before the hurricanes of September 2017.”
Those numbers were buoyed by a total of 137,375 passengers arriving in May and 128,714 passengers arriving in April.
“At that point in time cruise sector recovery would have taken a year,” management said. “We commend the staff of Port St Maarten for all their hard work, diligence and resilience in helping the port recover.”