Amigoe: Some Good News for the Aruban Hotel Sector

From Amigoe February 23, 2006: Positive result hotel sector

For those that claim that only bad news is reported from Aruba comes this story from Amigoe regarding tourism. However, any number can be skewed to show a positive or negative result. Head counts and occupancy rates are not always the most important number to focus on. The cost of a product needs to be closely looked at as well. If one is so discounting a product to have people buy it, is there really a net benefit?

Last year, the average rate of a hotel room in Aruba was 174.24 dollars. This was 21.7 percent lower than the year before

The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) had computed that the average occupancy was 81.7 percent, which is 1.7 percent higher than the year before.

The big picture in 2006 for Aruban tourism is more about the marketing costs that they are spending that they have never had to factor into the mix due to dealing with the negative images of the Natalee Holloway investigation. Those expenses would never exist if it were not for her disappearance. Stating otherwise would be spin.

ARUBA — Last year, the average rate of a hotel room in Aruba was 174.24 dollars. This was 21.7 percent lower than the year before. Also the occupancy and the average proceeds per room were higher than in 2004. Despite the disappointing results of the second half of 2005, the hotel sector had closed the year 2005 with good results.

The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) had computed that the average occupancy was 81.7 percent, which is 1.7 percent higher than the year before. Also the average proceeds per room went up with 14.9 percent to 93.63 dollars. The CBS concluded from an analysis made of the quarterly results, that the second quarter of 2005 had the best results. The timeshare-sector closed the year with an occupancy of 78.2 percent; that is a growth with 4.7 percent compared to the year before. Remarkable is that this sector did better business in the second half of 2005. The average price for a timeshare unit last year was 156.33 dollars; a proceeds of 12.7 percent higher than in 2004.