Aruban New Admittance Laws Threaten Time Sharing … More Tourism Brilliance

Question: What does a Caribbean Island like Aruba that 75% of their economy depends on tourism do when there tourism has been on the decline for over a year?

Answer: Pass legislation that directly affects Time Sharing and further impacts their tourism, economy and tax revenue.

If we had not witnessed the other mind boggling events that have transpired over the past 15 months in Aruba, we would actually find this bizarre. What next Aruba … raising interest rates into the teeth of a recession?

The consequences of the latest amendments of the Admittance- and Deportation National Ordinance (LTU) can be catastrophically for the timesharing-industry.  Tourists that before these amendments were allowed to vacation for three consecutive months in Aruba can suddenly stay for only 30 days effective July 1^st.  Part of the amendments in the LTU has been reversed, but that didn’t completely stop the timesharing-owners to worry. < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />

What’s the real problem in Aruba? Every politician is out for themselves, no communication and no plan. Sound familiar?

It disturbed Jan van Nes, general manager of Playa Linda Resort and chairman of ATSA that there was no deliberation with the tourist sector on the considerations of limiting the maximum allowable consecutive stay in the LTU.  “This proves that there is no coherent tourism policy at all.  Each ministry that has common grounds with tourism, does her own thing”, said Van Nes.  He emphasized that the timesharing-market is important for Aruba. 

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Playa Linda is one of the 16 timesharing-resorts in Aruba.

ARUBA – The consequences of the latest amendments of the Admittance- and Deportation National Ordinance (LTU) can be catastrophically for the timesharing-industry.  Tourists that before these amendments were allowed to vacation for three consecutive months in Aruba can suddenly stay for only 30 days effective July 1^st.  Part of the amendments in the LTU has been reversed, but that didn’t completely stop the timesharing-owners to worry. 

The executive committee of the Aruba Time Share Association (ATSA) sounded the alarm soon after it learned of the amendments in the LTU.  Minister Candelario ‘Booshi’ Wever (MEP) of Public Health, Environment, Administrative- and Immigration Affairs ordered Rudolph Kelly, head of IASA that is in charge of the border patrol, to exempt passport holders of some countries from the 30-days limitation.  The maximum consecutive stay for holders of passports from Canada, European Union countries, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Switserland, and Japan is 180 days for the time being.  Residents of Venezuela however, can only stay for 30 days max.  After the United States, Venezuela was the country that produced the majority of visitors till the end of May of this year.  While during that period fewer visitors were coming to Aruba, the Venezuelan market showed a growth of 3.29 percent compared to last year. 

Residents from Argentina and Brazil, also a substancial growth market, are also not allowed to stay longer than 30 consecutive days in Aruba.   Ahata, ATSA, and Dimas discussed the consequences of the new LTU-rules at the office of Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) this morning. 

It disturbed Jan van Nes, general manager of Playa Linda Resort and chairman of ATSA that there was no deliberation with the tourist sector on the considerations of limiting the maximum allowable consecutive stay in the LTU.  “This proves that there is no coherent tourism policy at all.  Each ministry that has common grounds with tourism, does her own thing”, said Van Nes.  He emphasized that the timesharing-market is important for Aruba. 

Aruba has 16 timesharing-resorts with about 3000 rooms altogether.  This number still grows with the expansion of Marriott and Divi and a few other current projects.  About 250.000 timesharing-owners or their family members and friends spend their vacation in Aruba on a yearly basis.  That is 30 to 40 percent of the total number of visitors.

About 80 percent of the timesharing-owners are from the United States and Canada; 10 and 15 percent are from Venezuela and other Latin American countries and 5 percent from other parts of the world.  There are as much as 80 nationalities in the data base of Playa Linda.   The average timesharing-owner stay two weeks in Aruba, but there is a considerable group that spends more than 6 weeks in their accommodation during the winter.  60 Percent of the timesharing-visitors are repeat guests, people that come back every year and that are often declared as goodwill ambassadors by the ministry of Tourism.  20 Percent of these are family members and friends of the owners and 10 percent are people that spend vacation in Aruba via the international exchange program.