MEP: 2008 Successful Tourism year in Aruba …. Denial, Its Not just a River in Egypt

Who knew that “D’Nile” was not only a river in Egypt, but existed in Aruba as well.

What ever happened to truth in advertizing? The following Arubam tourism piece is a cross between “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” and Baghdad Bob telling the world that the US military was not at the gates of Baghdad.

Baghdad Bob (Former Iraqi mouth piece)

Notice the resemblance?

Nelson Oduber: Current Aruban PM and mouthpiece

Aruba is going to have another successful year in 2008. Another? Doesn’t that presume that they had earlier successes? Talk about a desperate attempt to pat one’s self on the back. Is it election time already in Aruba where the Oduber government feels the need to inflate the truth about tourism? Also, it was not too long ago where there were news articles condemning the Minister of tourism and MEP for their handling of Aruban tourism and the Natalee Holloway case … HERE, HERE and HERE.

Thanks to Briesen, the tourism on the island increased from 691.000 tourists in 2001 to 754.000 in 2007.

This is thanks to the dynamic policy of the Oduber-cabinet and the huge efforts of Minister Edison Briesen of Tourism and Transport.

First, who knows whether the numbers are actually accurate and factual. Second, Aruba is touting head counts as a victory and a successful year? Talk about spin. Any one who knows anything about numbers knows they can be changed to show anything in a positive manner. Let’s take the pathetic attempt above to show Aruban tourism is a positive light.

• Spin cycle #1: Aruba uses initial tourism numbers from 2001 as their starting point. Question, what event happened in 2001 that greatly affected all travel and visits abroad? Answer: September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in NYC, the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 when brave and heroic passengers took down the plane in a field in Pennsylvania preventing more carnage. Tourism to a severe hit in 2001 in the Caribbean for obvious reasons in the aftermath of 911. Aruba has held safety and tourism conferences on the impacts of tourism in a post 9–11 world. So we know that Aruba is staring from a baseline tourism number that is lower than normal.

• < ?xml:namespace prefix =”" v ns =”" “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml” />Spin cycle #2: All people who visit Aruba are not created equal. When Aruba suffered terrible tourism in the aftermath of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005 they slashed and cut prices to make going to Aruba palatable. 2006 was a terrible year for Aruban tourism. The only way to entice travelers to come to Aruba was to lower the cost of hotel stays and develop affordable and discounted travel packages.
• Spin cycle #3: The following is a math problem that I am sure that even Oduber and Edison Briesen can do. We all know that post 9–11 caused a decrease in travel to the Caribbean, so in a normal trending year tourism in Aruba should have been roughly 700,000. Over the next 5 to 6 years there was an increase of 50K. Since most of the increase was in the years prior to Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, how many actual tourists came to Aruba post May 30, 2005? Out of those tourists how man came to Aruba at a 50% discounted rate? How many were media?
• Answer to the Spin: Aruba, it literally take today 2 tourists to make up what was once the amount that 1 tourists used to spend while on vacation. The hotel and travel rates are discounted, let alone the inflation rate has increased substantially in Aruba where there are greater costs. Please do not insult us with lofty visions of tourism grandure. If you want to be honest … show us the bottom line of revenue earned, not fabricated head counts.

MEP: ‘2008 successful tourism year (June 28, 2008, Amigoe)

ORANJESTAD – All the institution with tourism expertise on the island say that 2008 is going to be another successful year for the tourist industry. This is thanks to the dynamic policy of the Oduber-cabinet and the huge efforts of Minister Edison Briesen of Tourism and Transport.

MEP indicates that the government has fastened upon the reinforcement of this industry. Premier Nelson Oduber laid the basis for this by seeing to it that the project Plan Sasaki was implemented near Eagle- and Palm Beach. The MEP AND especially Minister Briesen was praised for all the good things they did in the tourism industry. Thanks to Briesen, the tourism on the island increased from 691.000 tourists in 2001 to 754.000 in 2007.

AHATA, ATA, and Aruba Airport Authority (AAA) confirmed that this year is going to be another success.