St. Maarten, St. Martin Tourism
St. Maarten Tourism
The dual island of Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin has an economy based almost completely on tourism with most employment on the island linked to the tourism sector. Tourism has helped to establish the island as one of the most affluent in the Caribbean with one of the highest per capita incomes.Dutch St. Maarten began to promote tourism in the1950’s but French St. Martin did not start to focus on tourism until the 1970’s. American tourists were, and still are, the primary visitors to the island although St. Maarten, St. Martin now enjoys many international tourists.
The Pasangrahan Guest House and the Sea View Hotel were two of the first hotels to open on the island in the 1940’s but the island’s leaders and politicians quickly realized the importance of tourism as part of its economy and began to develop the hospitality sector during the following decades with large scale construction projects. In time, major resorts, hotels, casinos, restaurants and duty free shopping stores to accommodate the influx of tourists were built and these businesses thrived.
In 1964, the island’s first deep water pier opened to increase focus on the cruise ship sector and cruise ship visitors. Currently, a much larger cruise ship facility has been built which is one of the finest in the Caribbean and services about 30 cruise ship lines.
St. Maarten’s airport, Princess Juliana International Airport, was totally rebuilt in 2006 to a 4 story, totally modern and sophisticated facility to service almost 550,000 arrivals per year.
St. Maarten has also become a hub for private boats and yachts and mega-yachts in high season due to its availability of first grade marinas and the additional availability of an entire sector of boat servicing and supplying companies.
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