The Port of St Maarten will get a boost this year with a series of additional calls by cruise giant Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean has modified its regional itineraries by adding 15 new stops in St Maarten this year.

That will increase the company’s cruise arrivals to St Maarten to more than 68,000 in 2020.

“In order to grow our partnership, we are taking the proactive step of enhancing our Eastern Caribbean itineraries by replacing a day at sea and adding a coveted visit to St Maarten,” said Joshua Carroll, Vice President at Royal Caribbean Cruises. “It’s part of our culture at Royal Caribbean to focus on continuous improvement and this extends to our relationships with destination partners.”

That increased port calls will come on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas ship.

“It makes perfect sense for us to embrace the win-win opportunities with the additional port calls by Freedom of the Seas that brings not only economic benefit to a great partner like Port St Maarten, but also offer our guests an amazing travel destination,” Carroll said.

The additional cruises will run beginning May through December, according to a statement from Port St Maarten.

“For an innovative ship like Freedom of the Seas to expand its calls here translates into a significant investment in economic development and tourism jobs,” said Senior Port St Maarten Manager, Roger Lawrence. “We look forward to working with Royal Caribbean as we continue to improve the port infrastructure to benefit all of our key tourism stakeholders to sustainably build on the numbers of visitors who appreciate our leisure travel offerings.”