Diario: (Aruba) While Minister of Tourism continues to hide, Tourism is faltering

Diario: December 30, 2005

An article on why the Aruban government is hiding from the recent tourism numbers. Interesting. Earlier in the summer they had no problem publishing the following tourism statistics.

Aruba continues winning popularity contests on the open seas in 2005 as the Caribbean destination’s cruise business skyrockets! Aruba, where happiness lives, boasts booming cruise numbers in the first four months of 2005, as over 14,000 lucky sea-goers touch land on the tropical oasis compared to 2004. From January through April 2005, the island oasis is proud to announce that it played host to 143 cruise calls over 131 in 2004, a spike of 9.61%. A whopping 256,589 cruise traveler also made landfall on Aruba, surpassing 242,101 in 2004, representing a notable 5.98% increase.

Aruba is a bona-fide hit on the high seas in 2005! The Caribbean powerhouse’s extraordinary hotels/resorts, roster of unique land and sea activities, …

Typically, Aruba’s annual high cruise season runs from October to December and low cruising season runs from May through September.

Mientras ministro di turismo ta sigui sconde TURISMO TA TAMBALEANDO

While Minister of Tourism continues to hide, Tourism is faltering

ORANJESTAD (AAN) — Aruba’s pillar of the economy, tourism, is not well placed and as aren’t its foundation as was the case 7 years ago, because in the last 4 years tourism has been going backwards.

Not even when the MEP government tried to let people believe that tourism has increased, the reality shows that hotels are not filling up anymore as they once were, and worse now in this season in which it’s increasingly clear that things do not bode well.

Cruise ship tourism has decreased and the quantity of passengers who have transited [through Aruba] has also dropped, while hotels which were once at 100% occupancy in high season, now painfully reach a 60% rate of occupancy.

While the Minister of tourism remains in hiding, same with the Attorney General who is hiding because of her mismanagement of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the situation in our economy in what relates to tourism is going backwards day after day.

Global influences such as what happened in Mexico, where in the area of Cancun, which is the center of tourism of Mexico and remained almost completely destroyed after a hurricane did not lead to more tourism for Aruba.

What happened in Europe where there where bombings in different countries and public disorder in France didn’t lead to more tourism for Aruba either.

(The rest of the translation) Hat Tip: Get a Grip