Misery Index Continues in Aruba as Tourism Numbers Fall for Feb & March 2006

Aruba has hit the misery index trifecta for February and March 2006 … tourism down, occupancy down, inflation up. How long will the powers that be allow this to continue … or should I say afford this to continue. Amigoe: Also Bank observed decrease tourism

ARUBA – The Central Bank of Aruba (CBA) published her monthly bulletin for May, in which is stated that the tourism figures decreased, the money quantity dropped and the inflation went up. Remarkable is that the tourism figures are related to February and March and not to May. The Bank explains in her bulletin that Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) has not yet published the figures for April and May of this year. CBA could therefore only compare the figures for February and March with same months last year. The number of visitors in February and March 2006 decreased with respectfully 11.1 and 18.2 percent. The number of stay over tourists dropped with 5.6 and 15.6 percent in February and March respectfully. The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered the average occupancy in hotels for the month of May, which are 74.2 percent; 3.8 percent lower than same month last year.

Cruise Tourism Authority (CTA) reported an increase of 22.6 percent in the total cruise tourists in May of 2006 and a 20 percent decrease in cruise ships that called in at the port of Aruba. The money quantity decreased with 3.8 percent (2.470.3 million florins) in May of this year. The internal money quantity had a net decrease of 26.2 million florins, but the incoming foreign currency of 22.4 million florins made up for part of this.

Mortgages increased with 0.3 percent to 2.2 million florins. The credits, like consumer credits, business loans, and not-credit related monetary matters, decreased. The inflation in May 2006 was 4.1 percent higher than in May of 2005. The yearly inflation of Aruba is 0.2 percent higher than that of the United States.