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Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA):

“Recovery of tourism will take time”

ORANJESTAD — Aruba The ADR, meaning aver- the fact that hotels state to
Hotel & Tourism Associa- age daily rate, of each receive cancellations con-
tion (AHATA) gathers the hotel room increased with tinuously. The expectation
monthly occupation num- 19, 1 % compared to the is to have a gradual growth
bers and prices of the ho- same period of six months towards an occupancy of
tels and inform the com- (July – December) of last 40 % in the month of De-
munity on the following year reaching $ 357, 75 per cember.
percentages and numbers room per night.
after the past three months The period of recovery will
without tourism. The RevPAR which is the be a long one, states AHA-
revenue per available TA, and the expenses will and will continue creating Without salary subsidy and
The hotel occupancy de- room, would be $ 126, 33 rise the income for compa- the necessity for financial financial support of The
creased with 50, 6 % com- that is a reduction of 51 % nies who depend on tour- support of the Kingdom to Netherlands in the coming
pared to the same period compared to the average ism. maintain as many com- months many companies
last year, in 2019. This means of one year ago. panies operational as pos- will go bankrupt and we
an average occupancy of It is important for everyone sible and keep people em- will face a mass unemploy-
35, 3 % for the hotels. The projection for occu- to realize that the econom- ployed. ment, says AHATA CEO Tisa
pancy in July is 9 % despite ic crisis is happening now LaSorte. q

Connecting children to nature within the Dutch Caribbean:

2019 DCNA Junior Ranger Exchange Event Evaluation

KRALENDIJK, BONAIRE — The tremendous efforts made by Si-
Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance etske van der Wal and Natasha
(DCNA) initiated its first Junior Silva (Fundacion Parke Nacional Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF- further action together with the
Ranger Annual Exchange event Aruba (FPNA)), Roxanne Liana NL), STINAPA Bonaire and support respective local organizations on
on 25-29 October 2019, as part of Francisca, Xenah Cicilia, and from Warehouse supermarket, the their home islands.
the new approach for the coop- Maria-Guanela Sluis (STINAPA program was organized, with two The principle of participation of
eration between the park man- Bonaire), and Emeray Neuman- overnight stays, field excursions the youth begins with the notion
agement organizations in the six Martha (DCNA). Thank you for all and workshops in the Washington that children are not passive or
islands of the Dutch Caribbean. that you do for the youth in nature Slagbaai National Park. helpless and without capacity.
DCNA just finalized their evalua- education. Rather, this principle recognizes
tions report that provides an over- In total, 20 Youth Nature Ambas- children as capable and active
view of this successful event and For the 2019 DCNA annual con- sadors and 5 adult leaders (and communicators who participate
valuable lessons-learned for the vention, 12-13 year old youth par- 3 coordinators) were part of the and are involved in (the selec-
next edition. Empowering kids to ticipants from the six Dutch Carib- exchange event as well as three tion and design of) activities that
be excited and knowledgeable bean islands were invited to join more experienced STINAPA Junior affect the improvement of their
about nature is critical for the the Junior Ranger Exchange with Rangers – whom at a slightly older general welfare, including their
preservation of the spectacular the special theme: Marine and age of 15-18 years functioned as environment. This type of partici-
nature within the Dutch Caribbe- Coastal Conservation. To repre- peer leaders during certain ac- pation occurs vertically between
an. sent Fundacion Parke Nacional tivities. The 2019 Junior Ranger children and the organization/in-
Aruba (FPNA), STINAPA Bonaire, Exchange proved to be a unique stitution and horizontally between
The 2019 Junior Ranger Exchange CARMABI on Curaçao, Curaçao experience in which the youth the children themselves through
was first and foremost a pilot pro- Sea Aquarium, Saba Conserva- participants had the opportu- processes focused on child-to-
gram, as the time span between tion Foundation, Saba Nature nity to learn about each other’s child interaction. Children’s re-
the idea and execution was short Education and St. Maarten Na- nature and conservation chal- lationship with nature is key to a
(four months). This was a chal- ture Foundation, four teenag- lenges, as well as create memo- sustainable future for the Dutch
lenge for both the organization ers were selected per island and rable experiences together. The Caribbean islands.
and the funding. On behalf of the brought together at the conven- ‘camp’ ended with a ‘high pro- For more information see the
DCNA team, we would also like to tion. DCNA’s activities are gen- file’ presentation which conferred evaluations report, https://www.
extend our sincere thanks to those erously supported by the Dutch the youth’s acquired knowledge, dcnanature.org/wp-content/up-
who coordinated the event. This Postcode Lottery. Thanks to co- discussed lessons learnt as well loads/2020/07/JRE-Report-Online.
event was a success due to the financing of the Rabobank, World as how they wanted to initiate pdf.q