Let's see if we can have a discussion without the lock hammer needing to be thrown. :-)

In other threads this topic has come up, so I figured let's give it a dedicated thread. Here is my $.02 (USD).

I am a 3x cruiser to St. Martin, and have always spent the day at Club O. Not sure how much St. Martin gets, but our port fees for 4 stops was $130, so guessing St. Martin gets $30 or so. On at ship with 3,000 people, that is $90,000 that St. Maarten gets (I wonder how, or if, it is split with the French side). When we were there on Nov. 19, there were 6 ships in port, and the passenger count was around 12,000. That would be around $360,000 for ONE DAY (and not everyone is getting off the ship).
That, friends, is A LOT of money that is going to the island. Money that YOU as residents (temp or full time) would be paying. On top of that, many of those cruisers are spending even more dollars, which is helping the merchants stay in business as well. I take a $20 taxi to Club O, and give the driver a $5 tip if they accept (for the gas), so that is $50 round trip. We then get a couple drinks at the Perch, $20 for the chairs and umbrella, and we have eaten at Papagayos. So that is another $140 left in St. Martin just for my wife and I to spend a day under the ever sweet yellow umbrella.

So, I am sorry my arriving with 2,999 of my new friends disrupts your 3 week vacation spot, but some of the money cruisers spend there helps keep government costs down, which in turn keeps your TS costs down, so in the end, while you may not directly see $$$, your costs are lower than they would be, or you could say the services on the island are way better than they otherwise might be. However you slice it, the island has way more money when the cruise ships pull out than they had that morning.
I hope this gives you something to mull over the next time Maho Beach traffic is snarled for an hour due to overflow cruiser taxis.

| This was written a bit tongue-in-cheek. Please take no offense. I DO understand why people staying for a few weeks are upset with the massive crush of people that show up on the cruise days. I wouldn't like it either. But they are a big revenue for the island.

Perhaps someone can post what the real passenger port revenue is, and if it is split between the two governments.