Port of St. Maarten Management and members of the Supervisory Board of Directors this week met with the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Operational Committee in Port Everglades regarding a number of issues related to destination development.
The points discussed were several pending projects such as Shore Excursions and security measures.
"The Port of St. Maarten has a very close working relationship with the FCCA. This relationship entails keeping in close contact about cruise industry and destination trends and development.
"In order for cruise destination St. Maarten to maintain its premiere cruise position in the Caribbean, the Harbour Group of Companies is always looking ahead at what has to be done to enhance the destination from an infrastructural perspective, but also when it comes to shore excursions," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies Mark Mingo said on Thursday.
Shore excursions such as marques tours need to be developed. A detail discussion took place between cruise line executives and harbour officials.
Also discussed was how other cruise destinations are dealing with tropical diseases such as dengue, especially how cruise lines deal with this on their Caribbean private tropical islands which are also prone to mosquitos.
St. Maarten Port officials have been provided with information from the FCCA with respect to the aforementioned on what methods are being used and this will be passed on to the Ministry of Public Health of the country.
CEO Mingo added that at this point in time no red flags have been issued for the destination St. Maarten/St. Martin with respect to chikungunya.
St. Maarten Port officials also provided a detailed explanation regarding the Country’s approach to date along with a letter from Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications Hon. Ted Richardson who could not attend the FCCA Operational Committee meeting due to parliament’s handling of the 2014 draft budget this week.
An update was also provided with respect to St. Maarten’s preparations for the FCCA 2014 Conference that the country will be hosting in October. It has been 10-years (2004) since the destination hosted a similar conference which will bring approximately 1000 cruise industry stakeholders from government officials, tourist boards, cruise ports, suppliers, cruise line executives and many others to the destination for one-week of discussions.
The Port of St. Maarten is ranked one of the highest in growth in cruise passengers as well as cruise passenger expenditure levels. Last year the Port of St. Maarten received 1,785.670 cruise passengers, 32,455 passengers more than in 2012. Cruise passengers arrived on 631 vessel calls for 2013.
PHOTO CUTLINE: President of the FCCA Michele Paige (5th from left), CEO Mark Mingo
(5th from right) with representatives of the FCCA Operational Committee and supervisory board members of the Port of St. Maarten.