Amigoe: More money to marketing and promotion of Aruba

Amigoe; March 14, 2006: More money to marketing and promotion of Aruba

ARUBA — In order to combat the decline in the tourism, Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (Ahata) will spend an extra 1.2 million dollars in marketing, said Otmar Oduber (AVP), chairman of the Parliament-committee Tourism. “Instead of cutting costs, the government body Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) should also invest more in marketing and promotion.”

According to Oduber, the month January showed a tourist decline of 4.3 percent compared to last year. The decline has to do with the Natalee Holloway-affair. The Parliament-committee had a meeting with representatives of Ahata recently.

Oduber says that it is a good idea that, same as all other government services, also the ATA gets 6 percent less on the budget in relation to last year. “Experts within the ATA say that an extra 7 million dollars is needed to reverse the declining situation of the tourism. The measures that Ahata is taking show that the private sector is willing to cooperate. We need extra money now for more marketing and promotion.”

Where is the action plan established by the Strategic Communication Task Force and ATA? This action plan was supposed to be sent to minister Edison Briesen (MEP) of Tourism and Transportation a month ago. Briesen would then forward it to Parliament. The Parliament has sill not received the plan though.

Oduber praised the work of Ahata. According to him, the members of the committee were pleasantly surprised with the work of the security-committee of Ahata that supports the Visibility Team in the hotel zone as well as in the town-centre. The committee also appreciates the work of the milieu-committee of Ahata. According to Oduber, it’s more than necessary that this committee devotes herself to reversing the decay of the beach and sea quality.