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St. Maarten

St. Maarten Tourism Statistics by Month

St. Maarten Tourism Statistics
Data: Caribbean Tourism Organization. Graphic © Caribeez.com

St. Maarten tourism statistics show that this eastern Caribbean island is a massively popular cruise port.

About 500,000 people visited the island for a “stopover” visit in 2014, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. A stopover visit consists of a stay of one night or more.

But more than 2 million people visited the island by cruise ship during the year, a 12 percent increase over the total in 2013.

It is one of the few destinations where cruise visitors outpace stopover visitors by such a large margin.

It is the fourth most popular cruise destination in the Caribbean after the Bahamas - Cozumel and the U.S. Virgin Islands. USVI exceeded St. Maarten by a margin of 82,000 people out of more than 2 million total.

This eastern Caribbean cruise destination is popular because of its main port of call.

The majority of cruise ships dock at Philipsburg, which has a robust shopping and dining district and a major beach right by the cruise docks.

Visitors by Month

St. Maarten stopover tourism by month follows a pattern that is common throughout most of the Caribbean.

The most popular months to visit are December through April, which is a dry season for the island.

The least popular months to visit are May through November. The period of June through November is the Caribbean hurricane season, which leads to higher levels of total rain and the threat of tropical storms or hurricanes.

March was the most popular month to visit in 2014 at 55,000 visitors followed by December and January at 52,000 each.

Like most Caribbean destinations, September was the least popular month to visit at 20,000 total followed by October at 29,000 stopovers.

Visitors by Country

Among stopover visitors, St. Maarten was most popular with U.S. residents at 267,000 in total. The total was an increase of more than 8 percent over 2013.

Europe came in second with 107,000 visitors and a 2.7 percent increase followed by “Other” at 75,000 and Canada at 51,000.

The number of stopover visits increased 6.4 percent between 2013 and 2014. The total increase was about the same in both summer and winter.

2013 St. Maarten Tourism

Stopover tourism increased 2.3 percent in 2013 over the previous year for a total of 467,000 visitors.

March again had the largest number of visitors while September had the fewest. The following list shows the number of 2013 visits by month:

January - 47,812
February - 48,052
March - 54,369
April - 40,882
May - 33,896
June - 33,453
July - 37,056
August - 36,678
September - 19,591
October - 26,625
November - 38,276
December - 50,569

The number of visitors from the U.S. increased 3 percent, Canadian visitors jumped 14 percent, Europe declined 1 percent and “Other” declined 2.5 percent.

Scott S. Bateman is a professional journalist who has traveled widely throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. He is the author of four books about cruising in the Caribbean, Alaska and Mexican Riviera.
February 17, 2020

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