Great Bay Port

Since St. Maarten embarked on its current path of economic development, its port services have played a crucial role. In the case of the harbour, this role has been two-fold: with the advent of the cruise industry the island became a preferred destination while at the same time it's strategic geographical position in the Eastern Caribbean has made it a trading hub.

St. Maarten has sought to capitalize on these advantages by responding to trends in these two industries. This came first with the construction of the Deep Water Pier (A.C. Wathey Pier) in the late 1950s/ early 60s, followed in 1989 by the transfer of the port's management from the Harbour Service, a department of the Island Territory of St. Maarten, to a public limited company. With the constant increase in cargo volume and passenger traffic over the years, it had become increasingly clear that for further development of the Harbour, a different administrative structure was desirable.

Over the past few years, many plans were made for the necessary expansion and optimization of the harbour. These plans were not carried out due to a number of inadequacies, particularly their failure to address long-term growth prospects. With the damages caused by Hurricane Luis (and Marlyn in 1995) especially to the A.C. Wathey Pier, which was rendered useless to the cruise industry, the urgency to rebuild was tempered by the opportunity presented to affect a long-term solution to the then shortcomings of the harbour. That formed the basis for what would become known as "The Modified SMPA 1996 Layout", which in turn resulted in the construction of the modern facility know as The Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facilities.

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