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LOCAL Thursday 12 OcTOber 2017

Cruise Ship Tourism Brings $85.5 Million to Aruba’s Economy

Continued from Page 13 invited cruise industry con-
sultant Amilcar Cascais
Part of the message of to elaborate on how to
the symposium for reach become successful in the
partner of ATA and tour cruise tourism industry.
operators was to stay cre- During his presentation
ative and do their best. He Cascais presented some
stressed how important it is statistics that bode well for
to keep making the cruise the outlook of the industry
tourism experience better. as a whole. He shared that
There was also a study pre- a total of 24.7 million cruise
sented showing that cruise ship passengers globally
ship tourists were very satis- were recorded in 2016, an
fied with their experience increase of 7% over 2015.
with Aruba’s cruise tourism. Meanwhile, the number
Principals in the industry will of passengers from 2017 is
continue to focus on the projected to be 25.8 million
quality of the economic globally, which is to dem-
impact cruise tourism has onstrate that this number
on Aruba. will continue to rise.
One point duly noted at The Aruba Cruise Sympo-
the symposium is that the sium’s goal is to help the
stigma that cruise tourists island of Aruba capitalize
traditionally don’t spend on this growth, which will in
money while visiting the is- turn have a positive impact
land is starting to change. that by the number of tour- Officer of ATA, did a pre- Aruba’s cruise tourism. The on our economy.
Mr. Arends believes that ists, it is a huge number,” he sentation of a master plan architectural firm Oever & The event was a heralded
the numbers speak for said. to develop a Port City in Zaaler (OZ) Architects has as a complete success,
themselves. In the most re- Oranjestad. They formally taken on the monumental leaving guests looking
cent study that ATA did, Project Port City Oranjestad started with this plan in May task, which is projected to forward to the next edi-
the average cruise tourist During the symposium, Lex to develop an urban area be completed in roughly tion of the Aruba Cruise
spent $112. “If you multiply Ridder, Chief Commercial to enhance and support 15 – 20 years. Ridder next Symposium.q