Second tender jetty
planned for downtown
MAHO--In preparation for the 220,000-tonne mega cruise ships that are being built and the immense number of passengers they will bring to the island, a new tender jetty is planned for close to Sea Palace in Philipsburg.
The jetty, unlike Captain Hodge Wharf, will be built on piles and is expected to be up and running in 2009, before the first mega cruise ship, the Genesis Class of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and the Pinnacle Class of Carnival Corporation, is launched.
Harbour Affairs Commissioner Theo Heyliger made the announcement of the planned new tender jetty at the seventh annual Caribbean Shipping Executive Conference Cruise Industry Agenda at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort Wednesday. This is the first time the Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA) has added a cruise component to the annual conference and it will build on this further with a two-day cruise workshop today, Thursday, and Friday.
The project is in the design and financing phase, Heyliger told The Daily Herald after mentioning it briefly in an overview of the development of the cruise and cargo industry on the island. The water rights and land use agreements are being worked out at present.
The jetty is necessary to regulate the flow of cruise passengers arriving and leaving town aboard water taxis.
The jetty will not only benefit cruise passengers, Heyliger added. Building a jetty in the lower part of Philipsburg will spread out the economic wealth generated for businesses by cruise tourism, as passengers will be deployed at the head of town via Bobby’s Marina, in the middle of the bustling capital via Captain Hodge Wharf and to the quieter, but still vibrant lower section via the jetty.
Heyliger said the environmental impact assessment for the jetty had been included in the overall study for the multimillion-dollar expansion of Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facilities that includes a new 445-metre-long, 21-metre-wide mega cruise ship pier juxtaposed to the existing cruise pier.
Businesses in the area will not be the only ones to benefit from this spreading-out of the cruise passenger flow. Real estate in the area, which is owned primarily by the local community, is expected to double or triple in value, bringing an added value to residents, Heyliger said.
Showing how cruise tourism continues to benefit the island will foster more belief by residents in the industry for which St. Maarten ranks in the top 10 ports of the world, he pointed out.
In his presentation, Heyliger advised other Caribbean countries looking to break into the cruise industry, to “think outside of the box and stay on course” with their vision by not allowing consultants to dictate what the island needs. All planning should involve all local stakeholders who, along with government, chart the vision, with which the consultants have to work in tandem to create the new product.
Shipping and port executives from Suriname, Curaçao, St. Kitts, French St. Martin, Jamaica, Barbados and others countries and islands were impressed with what St. Maarten has been able to achieve in the cruise and cargo sectors in 12 years. The cruise sector used to carry the cargo operations in the past, but now, with the tremendous development of St. Maarten as a transhipment hub for the Northeastern Caribbean, the cargo section has become the money-maker.
St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies Managing Director Mark Mingo also addressed the gathering. He gave an overview of the current expansion project and an insight into how the company was repositioning its marketing. He said the marketing and promotion budget for the harbour had been shifted completely from the United States to Europe. The island did not have a presence at SeaTrade Europe for several years, but this will change in the coming months.
Joint promotion with the French side, which is redesigning its waterfront with the planned addition of a megayacht pier, will also take form. The Port of St. Maarten and the French side will be side-by-side at this year’s Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) annual conference in Trinidad in October.
Cooperation with other ports to better promote the region was one of the resounding points coming out of the three-day CSA conference that ended Wednesday.
Delegates urged the association to foster partnerships that would result in a more cohesive promotion of the region for cruising, similar to the “Caribbean” brand in use by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the Caribbean Hotel Association.
Such a cohesive approach has worked in Europe where the product “Cruise Europe” has grown from a package of a select number of cities and ports to more than 104 locations throughout the continent that are promoted as one package.
Closing off the conference, CSA President Fernando Rivera commended St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies for hosting the event and being an example of the industry to follow.
