CENTRALE BANK VAN ARUBA: Summary of the monthly bulletin of the Centrale Bank van Aruba

More terrible economic and tourism reporting out of Aruba. The tourism numbers continue to decrease. The June 2006 numbers follow the patter of tourism decline since the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The continued loss of tourism for 2006 is rather significant in the fact that they will now be compared to 2005 when there was also a loss of tourism on a monthly basis. The fact that tourism is now compared to a negative number and still decreases on a monthly basis, just compounds the plight faced by Aruba.

In June 2006, the number of stay-over visitors and their nights spent on the island fell by 8.8 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, compared to the corresponding month in 2005. Available data for the first six months of 2006 show that stay-over tourists and their nights spent on the island decreased by 10.3 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. Figures on tourist arrivals and nights spent on the island for July and August 2006 are not yet available.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average occupancy rate of the hotels contracted by 3.1 percentage points to 80.6 percent in August 2006, compared to the corresponding month a year earlier.

Data published by the Cruise Tourism Authority show that the number of cruise passengers increased by 21.5 percent in August 2006, when compared to the corresponding month of 2005. In contrast, the number of ship calls decreased by 14.2 percent. (Central Bank of Aruba)

Previous posts:

Aruban Tourism Down Again; What Will it take to Wake these people Up? What Are they Hiding?

Teenager, Julia Wilson, Questioned for Online George W. Bush Threats on her MySpace Account

Folks, if you think there is total and complete freedom of speech on the internet, you best think again. Responsible free speech, yes. Threats to the President of the United States, no. There are consequences to your actions, as 14 year old Julia Wilson learned.

She posted a picture of the president, scrawled “Kill Bush” across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

It was too late.

The teen then learned that search engines can be unforgiving. So can the reaction of the Secret Service when checking a threat made against a President. They are all taken seriously as one never knows.

Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.

The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents. (Access North GA)

Bye Bye Air (we won’t miss) America

The great liberal experiment in talk radio has hit the wall as they declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. The radio group that featured liberal talk and had to pay to get air play across the country could not make it economically, so they have stuck it to their creditors that include air personality Al Franken.

Whomever is surprised by this, raise you hand. Yep, exactly what I thought, just the guy with the weird hair and the shirt that makes fun of Bush has their hand up.

Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news radio network that features the comedian Al Franken, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a network official told The AP.
The network had denied rumors just a month ago that it would file for bankruptcy. On Friday, Air America spokeswoman Jaime Horn told The Associated Press that the filing became necessary only recently after negotiations with a creditor from the company’s early days broke down.

  The network will stay on the air while it resolves issues with its creditors, Horn said. In addition to Franken, the network also features shows from liberal talk show host Randi Rhodes and Jerry Springer.

Horn declined to name the creditor with which talks had reached a logjam. The company will operate in the interim with funding from its current investor group. (AP)

Aruba’s June Tourism Numbers Released – Trending Significantly Downward

 The Central Bank of Aruba has released tourism numbers and they are looking bleak. For the month of June, 2006,  overall tourists is down 8.8 percent. The numbers for overnight stays is even worse, falling a devastating 10.3 percent for the month. And we do not know how low room rates have come down to attract tourists to the island.

The rule of thumb is that the last 10 percent of the a hotels revenue is its profit. If this is the case, the hotel operators on the island are facing a very tight squeeze. My guess is that they are laying off many of the housekeepers, waiters, busboys, and bellhops these days. Add to that all of the off property businesses that have to be struggling and laying off employees, the job market in Aruba must be looking especially bleak.

Then Aruba gouges the tourist for their tax dollars to maintain the social fabric of the island. So the wonderful government is facing lower tax receipts (tourism down) and higher unemployment. And a group of powerful hotel operators that are insisting they increase the marketing dollars spent to get new tourists to come to the island.

Well, the poor citizens of Aruba are now seeing the price of an incompetant government. Are you happy now?

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Scared Monkeys Radio – Dana Pretzer Inaugural Show

The inaugural Dana Pretzer Show is going to be Thursday Evening, 9:00 to 10:00 PM Eastern Time. We are thrilled to have for our intitial show the following guests live from The National Sexual Predator Information Center Fundraiser:

• Beth Twitty
• Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch
• Patricia Kilpatrick, Kansas State Representative  
• Rick Segall of America’s Most Wanted
• Kevin Black,   Recording Artist

We also hope to have a couple of surprise guests as well so stay tuned. The show will be streamed live over the internet, and if you happen to miss it, then you can download the podcast of the show shortly afterwards from this site.

We are presently replaying Dana’s last show. You may listen to that show now, and then when we come on the air, use this link to listen live. The podcast will be uploaded after the show to Scared Monkeys Radio site.

UPDATE: PODCAST is now available. Click Here.