Amigoe: Petition demands attention for tourism promotion in Aruba. When will they Ever get a clue?

How misguided could one island be? Individual and businesses in Aruba would sign a petition to promote and market Aruba. Where were you people to sign a petition to adequately solve and prosecute the disappearance of Natalee Holloway?

AVP wants to establish a tourism fund as soon as possible in order to fill the beaches again with tourists.

In the petition, the government is specifically asked to make an amount of 13 million dollars available to give the promotion of Aruba a big impulse and prevent a further decline.  They emphasize the importance of this by indicating that 85 percent of the jobs in Aruba have to do with the tourism.

(Amigoe)

When is Aruba going to wake up? Does Aruba really think that people do not know that they exist in the Caribbean? The fact of the matter is that most everyone does in the US and that is what upsets them. I am beginning to wonder how this island even became a tourism spot other that luck. As witnessed over the past 13 months it is certainly not because they know what they are doing, care about visitors or understand their market.

Does Aruba really believe in the motto … “if we spend it, they will come?” It’s not going to happen. What part about people have no confidence in the fact that you will adequately protect and investigate a crime against a tourist have you not figured out? No amount of money is going to change that perception. At this point the ALE and Prosecutors office have not even admitted the real mistakes that were made.

No amount of money is going to change the fact that for some reason that only Aruba knows, the ALE departed from normal police procedure in the investigation of Natalee Holloway and provided preferential treatment to certain individuals. American tourists ARE NOT going to a place where there is a precedent of cronyism and turning your head to protect and hide what what happened to one of their own.

What is more telling is this sentence that hopefully the NYC Judge in charge of the Holloway and Twitty’s civil case is looking at.

The Aruba Marketing Retreat took place in New York recently.  The businesses and organizations in the tourism field that took part in the retreat expressed their concern about the lack of money for a big promotion campaign.

Isn’t that rather convenient. Aruba can come to NYC on a retreat to discuss the marketing and basically out-source their tourism with NYC consultants, but there is no NEXUS in the civil case according to the lawyers for the Van der Sloots. Its also OK for the Van der Sloots to come to NYC for their own self-serving purposes. Wouldn’t it seem a simple concept that if Aruba thinks it important enough to come to NYC to discuss the the what makes up 70% of their economy that it would create a relationship. So why isn’t it important enough that they entertain the idea of a civil case against an Aruban as well? That would be a hint to the NYC Judge. It would almost seem like Aruba has exported their tourism decisions to NYC, so why not this civil case as well?

However, the fact that Aruba thinks they can buy their way out of this is as short-sighted and misguided as it gets.

They are of the opinion that the negative publicity of last year after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway had hurt the tourism bad.  A big campaign would contribute to a recovery.  The government has cut the budget and made it impossible to start such campaign. 

A big campaign would contribute to your recovery? No it won’t!!! It will infuriate people even more. You would put money over human life? Aruba, you have been wrong ever inch of the way in dealing with this problem.Maybe you should listen to those that know the real reason for your problems rather than living in a vacuum listening to “yes” men.

Has Carlos N’ Charlie’s been penalized or prosecuted for allowing under age people to drink in their establishment which contributed in the chain of events for Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. Has the Excelsior Casino been prosecuted for allowing individuals to gamble under age according to the laws of Aruba? What part about not even being allowed in the casino under 18 is difficult to comprehend, let alone to actually sit at a table and gamble? It could easily be stated that if the Excelsior Casino followed the laws of Aruba, Joran Van der Sloot would never have been allowed in to gamble and never met the Mountain Brook teens at the card table.

The legal age for entry into a casino is eighteen (18) years, and the casino has the right to request a valid I.D. as proof of age. (Visit Aruba.com)

Does everyone remember when Aruban Prime Minister said he would not tolerate any activities that would harm American tourists? What do you think the two examples above did?

 ”Learning the news of Natalee’s disappearance on our island left us all in a state of shock and disbelief,” Oduber said. “We will not tolerate any activities that harm our American friends or tarnishes Aruba’s reputation.”

(Fox News)

It was not negative publicity that caused the problem of Aruba’s declining tourism. It was the actions and inactions of the ALE and the powers to be in Aruba to investigate this disappearance in a professional and competent manner. That is your problem. Stop blaming others. Own up to this and maybe, just maybe you might be given a second chance. However, that will never occur unless you come clean. What are you hiding?

READ THE FULL STORY AT AMIGOE: July 20, 2006

Petition demands attention for tourism promotion

AVP wants to establish a tourism fund as soon as possible in order to fill the beaches again with tourists.

ARUBA – The Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (Ahata), our entrepreneurs, and some airline companies are currently conducting a petition amongst the members.  In that petition, the signers urgently appeal to the government to immediately make money available for the promotion of the tourism.  Soon as all partners have seen the petition, it will be given to the government. 

The Aruba Marketing Retreat took place in New York recently.  The businesses and organizations in the tourism field that took part in the retreat expressed their concern about the lack of money for a big promotion campaign.  They are of the opinion that the negative publicity of last year after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway had hurt the tourism bad.  A big campaign would contribute to a recovery.  The government has cut the budget and made it impossible to start such campaign.  Representatives of Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) indicated during the meeting that the available budget is lower than the amount budgeted by the advertisement bureau that performs the promotion for Aruba.

Another point of concern is that the competing destinations in the region have actually increased their promotion budget.  Besides, the campaigns that Aruba has conducted in the past years are not modernized.  

In the petition, the government is specifically asked to make an amount of 13 million dollars available to give the promotion of Aruba a big impulse and prevent a further decline.  They emphasize the importance of this by indicating that 85 percent of the jobs in Aruba have to do with the tourism.

All the businesses that have to do with the tourism are approached with the request to sign the petition and once this is done, the petition with the signatures will be given to the government.

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