Business
Philipsburg cruise traffic rose 4.2% to 1.37 million passengers in 2024
Philipsburg welcomed 1.37 million cruise passengers in 2024, up 4.2% or 56,174 on 2023, from 513 ship calls, SoualigaPost reported.
By SXM Daily ·
Reported 26 August 2025.
The port of Philipsburg welcomed 1.37 million cruise passengers in 2024, up 4.2% on 2023, or 56,174 more passengers, SoualigaPost reported on 26 August 2025. It was the highest annual figure since the Covid-19 crisis, though still below 2019 and the levels before Hurricane Irma in 2017, according to the outlet.
Illustrative: a cruise ship heading to Philipsburg (file photo).
Photo: Richie Diesterheft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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A total of 513 cruise ships called at Philipsburg in 2024, 22 more than in 2023. December was the busiest month, with 97 ships, an average of 3.1 a day, SoualigaPost said.
High season carried the year
About three-quarters of the year's passengers came in the first and last quarters, with 572,474 and 460,773 respectively, according to SoualigaPost. Traffic rose 7% in January to March and 21% in October to December compared with 2023.
Those gains made up for the low season. From April to September, passenger numbers fell 16.1% to 341,115, with most of the drop in April, the outlet reported. Ships carried an average of 2,679 passengers in 2024, against 2,685 the year before.