Thursday’s five-ship day marked the start of the 2025-2026 cruise season (see related story), bringing thousands of day-trippers to Great Bay. With three scheduled for today, Friday, and two on Sunday, the number of calls can be expected to continue growing during the coming weeks and months.
Needless to say, as stay-over arrivals also gradually increase, the usual impacts including more hustle-and-bustle plus added road congestion will no doubt occur, at times even bringing a bit of inconvenience for residents. If so, it seems advisable to bite one’s tongue and remember that the island’s economy and people’s livelihood to a large a degree depend on income provided by guests who come mostly during winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
How they will be getting here is another matter. According to a story on Thursday’s business pages, US authorities ordered a 10% cut in flights at 40 major airports due to air traffic safety sparked by the government shutdown in Washington DC.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said capacity reductions would start at 4%, rise to 5% on Saturday and 6% on Sunday, before hitting 10% next week. Hopefully things can return to normal soon, because destinations in this region are likely to suffer some unfavourable consequences if the problem persists.
Regretfully, visitors to the down-town shopping area won’t be able to enjoy a new Soualiga Marketplace just yet. The project being executed in cooperation with the Royal Caribbean Group suffered much delay, but was reported to be back on track in the Thursday newspaper.
Waiving vendor fees for last and this year is in any case the right thing to do. Not only did these operators of stalls have to wait long for an alternative spot, the temporary location turned out to be far less suitable in terms of attracting clients.
Also the decision allowing Philipsburg stores to open on November 11 makes sense. St. Maarten/St. Martin Day is important, but with five passenger vessels in port, the opportunity to do some business after a difficult summer should not be wasted and meeting everything closed is not a nice experience either.
Besides, working on public holidays is strictly voluntary and must be rewarded with 150% pay. Many employees probably appreciate the chance to earn an extra buck going into the Christmas holidays.
Ready or not, the busy period is upon those who will, as always, be counted on to deliver. After all, tourism is what we do.
