Port St. Maarten:

The road to recovery

As is already well documented, last September’s devastating Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, wreaked havoc across large parts of the Caribbean.

Many islands felt the full impact of either Irma or Maria and in some cases both. One of the hardest-hit of these islands was Dutch Sint Maarten/St Martin. Hurricane Irma is estimated to have caused around US$ 3 billion in damage to the island’s tourism-led economy and damaged some 70 per cent of its infrastructure.

The vast majority of the island’s cruise traffic has centred on Port St. Maarten and, as a consequence, the Dutch side of the island suffered most from the drop-off in arrivals in the wake of Irma.

Over the past 10 years or so, privately held Port St. Maarten had pursued a cruise strategy focused on attracting volume traffic and leveraging on the island’s keenly priced duty-free shopping at its attractive Harbour Point Village and duty-free capital of the Caribbean, Philipsburg. All of this was partially damaged by Irma on 6 September.

Luckily, Port St. Maarten’s cruise terminal was not quite as severely affected as some other parts of the island, but badly damaged it was. And it would be around three months after Irma before cruise ships were able to call once again.

Port St. Maarten business development officer Alex Gumbs spoke to Caribbean Maritime about the hurricane, the events of the past few months and where Port St. Maarten goes from here.

Impact

First, Mr Gumbs detailed the impact on the port’s facilities: “Damage to Pier 1 was caused by one of the expansion joints lifting. This has been repaired since the beginning of March and we are now 100 per cent operational with six berths available. One of the security screening booths for the Genesis-class ships was destroyed. This has since been restored. Wooden kiosks were damaged and these are all now repaired and open for business. In terms of cargo, there was an area at the terminal where bricks were washed away due to the high swells of 8 meters plus. There was minor electrical damage to the cranes which is now all repaired.”

Mr Gumbs said no level of planning could have anticipated a hurricane of such power and intensity. “We had contingencies in place with a well-structured hurricane plan. However, the sheer force of the storm, with winds of more than 185 mph, caused damage that no one could have prepared for.”

As it was, cruise ships would not return to St Maarten until 4 December when the 930-passenger ‘Viking Sea’ berthed. The following day, Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson Cruises) called with its vessel ‘Marella Discovery’.

And the initial reaction of these pioneering passengers? Mr Gumbs told Caribbean Maritime: “They were amazed with the swift rebound and with the courtesy of our citizens, merchants and tour operators. A lot of these passengers committed to spreading the positive word among their friends and family. The ratings from the various cruise lines also gave an indication that the island had returned to its pre-Irma situation.”

Normality

By Christmas things were starting to get back to some sort of normality and St Maarten welcomed five ships with around 10,000 passengers (and crew) which called on 25 and 26 December.

So where does Port St. Maarten go from here – a destination that in the past has seen over 2 million cruise passengers in a single year?

Mr Gumbs said: “From a passenger arrival perspective, it is dependent on inland developments, the overall recovery and the availability of tours. We expect to return to more than 1.5 million passengers in the 2019/2020 season. In 2018 we will receive approximately 1.2 million passengers. By contrast, cargo is over-performing as the build-back efforts and a construction boom commences.”

Normal services restored

In Sint Maarten it was not just the port area that was badly hit. Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) was equally affected – and is still affected. Temporary air conditioned arrival and departure lounges have been erected pending the reconstruction of the main terminal building, which is not due to reopen until late this year or early 2019.

But, in testament to the work of the local authorities and the Dutch government, electricity had been restored to 95 per cent of the island by the first quarter of 2018 and most people had water and telecommunications. Around 85 per cent of downtown Philipsburg is now open and 80 per cent of tours are running. Hotels have begun to reopen or announced firm plans to do so, but it’s a long road back for some. While the Oyster Bay Beach Resort began welcoming guests in April, two of Sonesta’s properties will not reopen until late this year or early next and the Great Bay Beach Resort, too, will reopen in early 2020.