After Millions Spent, Aruban Tourism Still Floundering; Increase of 0.6% in April, 2007

After all the millions spent on marketing tourism, after all the attempts to spin bad publicity and after all the attempts to shift blame on to other in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, Aruba’s tourism is still in shambles.

As reported in Amigoe and The Aruban Central Bank, Aruban tourism was up 0.6%. With all the recent efforts made to market tourism, that can only be looked at as a total failure. Aruba also on the tourism horizon has the release of Beth Twitty’s book, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith. The October 2, 2007 release will once again shed light and attention on the fact that Aruba has done nothing to provide, Justice for Natalee.

In April 67.825 tourists visited Aruba. That’s merely 0.6 percent more than in April 2006.

The Easter period saw a decline in both years for the month of April. The foregoing Semana Santa usually brings a lot of southern neighbors to our island, but this year it was quite less. Also the number of American tourists declined by 1.6 percent.

A decline from the northern cities of Chicago (Illinois) and Detroit (Michigan) was registered, as was the case with the most important air traffic junction Atlanta in Georgia.

The tourism from cruise ship’s is also down drastically.

Tourism Authority show that, when compared to the corresponding month of 2006, the number of cruise passengers shrank considerably, i.e., by 53 percent, despite a 42.9 percent increase in ship calls in June 2007. (CBA)

Amigoe: August 13, 2007: Marginal growth tourism in April 

ORANJESTAD – In April 67.825 tourists visited Aruba. That’s merely 0.6 percent more than in April 2006. Striking was the decline of the amount of Venezuelan visitors by 3.4 percent. In the month of March the amount doubled compared to the previous year. The Easter period saw a decline in both years for the month of April. The foregoing Semana Santa usually brings a lot of southern neighbors to our island, but this year it was quite less. Also the number of American tourists declined by 1.6 percent. These figures on the month of April was publicized by the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA). 

Even though the figures per country are often relatively small, the South American market as a whole is still on the rise. The amount of visiting Argentinians and Brazilians grew in April by 40.9 percent and 14.4 percent respectively. In the first for months of this year the figures were 10.6 percent and 13 percent respectively.

While the amount of American visitors declined, new growth from the traditionally strong northeastern corner of the United States was seen, in which Massachusetts and New York played the most important role.

The amount of visitors coming from Massachusetts slightly declined, but this was made up for by the inhabitants of the state of New York; their amount increased by 14.4 percent compared to April 2006.

A decline from the northern cities of Chicago (Illinois) and Detroit (Michigan) was registered, as was the case with the most important air traffic junction Atlanta in Georgia.

With the exception of Spain, traffic from Europe drastically declined. Belgium, the German speaking countries and Scandinavia produced less than in the previous year. The figures do not show whether this has anything to do with a lower seat availability of the KLM on their mid-Atlantic routes.

The traffic on route to Curaçao is, however, clearly on the rise. With 2.200 passengers a growth of 79.8 percent was realized.  

The figures of ATA show a slight decline (-3.7 percent) of passenger transport of American Airlines on route to Aruba. Price competitor JetBlue is aggressively active in the market and brought 4.347 passengers to the Reina Beatrix Airport in April. Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines all suffered passenger loss; only USAirways brought in more passengers than in the previous year. The figures of ArkeFly and Martinair can not be compared to 2006 as yet. It is clear, however, that these airline companies are far from compensating the lower passenger amount of KLM in the month of April. As expected, Tiara Air, DAE and Insel did well on the routes to Curaçao and Bonaire. The amount of passengers arriving by private jet saw a decline of 18.8 percent compared to the previous year. The first four months did see a growth of 22.3 percent in this segment.