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Thursday 12 OcTOber 2017

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

ORANJESTAD –The 3rd edi-
tion of the Aruba Cruise
Symposium was held re-
cently, offering interesting
insights and positive news
about Aruba’s cruise tour-
ism industry. The Aruba
Cruise Symposium is orga-
nized by the Aruba Tour-
ism Authority (ATA), and
is intended to support the
sustained growth of cruise
tourism on Aruba.

The Aruba Cruise Sympo-
sium will be the final con-
ference held by ATA this
year, as the annual ATCA
Conference has been in-
definitely postponed due
to the unprecedented hur-
ricane damage caused
throughout the region. Di-
rector of ATA Ronella Tjin
Asjoe-Croes assured Bon
Dia Aruba they made the
decision based on feed-
back ATA received from
operators who sell Aruba tion and assistance to our platform with which it was
as a package. Nonethe- community that the Aruba presented. Highlighting the
less, ATA is compiling all the Cruise Symposium provides. economic impact of the
information and continues Guests and principals of the cruise industry on Aruba,
to be in dialogue with our annual symposium, held at from what ATA projected
strategic partners in North the Renaissance Conven- for the year 2017 based on
America and throughout tion Center, expressed their what visitors spend on av-
the region. satisfaction with the orga- erage, the industry should
It is important to recognize nization and presentation contribute $85 million to our
the value of the informa- of the data as well as the economy, which was 21%
more than the year before.
“I believe the volume is one
thing, but more important is
the economic impact and
growth for Aruba.”
The data that was present-
ed showed that cruise tour-
ism is moving in the right
direction, a positive finding
according to Tjin Asjoe-
Croes. She explained that
ATA organizes the Aruba
Cruise Symposium primar- ing we can better our prod- monly regarded as Aruba’s
ily to promote this sector of uct.” ‘low season’ between May
tourism, but also to recog- and September. This is the
nize and capitalize on the Cruise Manager of ATA strategy of ATA, to push
factors involved which are For his part, Mario Arends, growth during the tradition-
in many ways different from who is the Cruise Manager ally weaker season, and
our base of tourists that visit of ATA indicated that the support sustained growth
by airlift each year. “You year 2017 was a very suc- during the high season.
have to take the time to cessful year for Aruba, not- Arends says it appears in
separately recognize the ing the island received a 2018 the cruise tourism
dynamics of each.” A train- record 750,000 cruise pas- will surpass 800,000, again
ing session was held with sengers for the year. An especially due to the in-
tour operators, govern- important factor indicated crease in cruise passengers
ment workers, and others in this success was the in- during the ‘low season.’
from the industry during the crease in cruise tourists that
symposium. “With this train- came during what is com- Continued on Page 15