Aruba Boasts of 13.6% Increase in Colombian Tourists … To Bad they Only Represent 1.74% of Aruban Tourism

Sound the horns and let the pigeons loose in Aruba … there was a 13.6% increase in visitors to Aruba from Colombia. Aruba, your tourism is saved. I guess you have nothing more to fear and worry about from people expressing their First Amendment Constitutional Rights to protest and have their voice be heard in demanding “Justice for Natalee” at travel shows in the United States.

The bad news for Aruba is that their good news is a double edge sword. First, Colombian travelers only represent 1.74% of their tourism as a whole. This is hardly something to get excited about. The increase of 1580 tourists a year is not the things that should get the ATA and AHATA ready to through a party.

Secondly, Aruba better figure out what the likes and dislikes are of their greatest percentage of tourists to their island. Americans do not like change, especially when they go to the same tourist destination. Aruba has already lost those that consciously relate “Justice for Natalee” and missing Natalee Holloway to Aruba. Now they will lose the people that went to Aruba for the same old, same old vacation for years and years. To tell the average person from America that there is a 14% increase in Colombians to the place that they consider a tourist destination is hardly a ringing endorsement to go to Aruba. That is the perception. The more Aruba brings in other types of tourists, the less Americans will travel there. That is the reality.

UPDATE I: Here are some Island Getaway spots to travel to in the US

Do you feel the need to go to island getaway places? Why go abroad when there are some great places to visit in the United States.

Number of Colombian visitors increases  (Amigoe: March 30, 2008)

BOGOTÁ/ORANJESTAD — 13.178 Colombians visited Aruba in 2007; an increase of 13.6 percent compared to 2006, announced Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) today. 

In 2006, 11.598 Colombians spent vacation or attended conventions in Aruba.  The number of Colombian visitors to Aruba is currently 1.74 percent of the total number of visitors to Aruba, which were 753.816 in 2007. Compared to 2006, an increase of 8.56 percent.  An average flight from the most important cities in Colombia to Aruba is 1 hour and 20 minutes.