This is the first time the island has welcomed that many cruise passengers in one year. The closest the tally had come to this milestone was in 2005 when 1.488 million cruisers visited the island.
The exact cruiser tally for last year stands at 1,512,618, compared to 1,454,274 passengers projected by St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies earlier in the year. The year brought 58,344 more cruise passengers than projected.
Deputy Prime Minister and Harbour Affairs Minister Theo Heyliger said the attainment of this milestone was "simply another promise kept to St. Maarten." He noted that agreements had been brokered with cruise partners over the years to ensure that cruise ships kept coming and the economy continued to grow even in the toughest of times.
"It is now up to us to continue to offer an even better destination to our visitors. We need to be again friendlier, be different and innovative. Moving St. Maarten even further in the industry requires every resident to play their part," Heyliger said, adding that merchants, especially those in Philipsburg who benefited on the front lines, needed to put more back into the island.
St. Maarten had held the top spot for cruise crew spending for many years until it lost its footing to St. Thomas in 2009. That island had always claimed the top spot for cruise passenger spending, with St. Maarten coming in second.
"We have to reclaim the top spot in crew spending and endeavour to claim the number one spot in passenger spending. The crew and passengers on every ship that comes into port praise our island. That praise needs to translate into more economic growth," the minister said.
Heyliger had announced in October 2009 that 2010 would be a landmark year for St. Maarten cruise arrivals and the industry in general, after he and Harbour CEO Mark Mingo had a round of meetings with cruise line executives and itinerary makers.
Mingo had told this newspaper in late December that it was anticipated that the milestone would be achieved. On the actual attainment he said, "St. Maarten continues to be a strong destination for cruise tourism, but the product still needs more work."
Mingo called on the private sector, in particular merchants and tour operators, to do more this year to maintain the outstanding arrival numbers. "We all have to do our part to promote and better our destination."
In spite of the good news, there are still concerns about crime against cruise passengers and crew as well as residents. The recent shooting of a crew member in Sucker Garden once again highlighted the need for a more direct approach to tackling crime.
Mingo said St. Maarten had been and continued to be lucky that, despite some spikes in crime, the ships had kept coming. "However, we can't sit and think all is well. Crime needs to be tackled and it needs to be tackled now."
As for the hard figures, only three months ? September, October and December ? fell below the projections. However, the highest numbers of passengers and ship calls were in December.
A total of 200,659 passengers and 85 ship calls were tallied for December. The projected passenger arrivals for that month had been tagged at 207,560.
Total passenger arrivals for January were 180,534, February 170,036, March 192,195, April 143,734, May 79,074, June 84,889, July 91,835, August 82,024, September 57,974, October 77,992, November 151,672 and December 200,659.
The year's arrivals represented a 24.5 per cent increase over the projections. There are similar expectations for 2011.
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