Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20200513

a32 local
Wednesday 13 May 2020

From Aruba Tourism Authority:

A.T.A. presents its ninth annual report (2019) to the minister of tourism

ORANJESTAD — This week, the An- done, as well as a financial report Aruban Parliament, the Minister tional marketing efforts and strate-
nual Report for 2019 was officially and its respective declaration of of Tourism can give his formal ap- gic adjustments made during the
presented to Minister of Tourism approval. proval of the Annual Report (in this year in, among others, the Ameri-
Danguillaume Oduber. Typically, case, the report for 2019). can market.
the presentation is done in the pres- According to law, there are two
ence of the president of the Aruba crucial time periods for the Tourism This is the ninth Annual Report that For 2019, the A.T.A. is projecting
Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) Board Office: the first is when the budget the A.T.A. has completed carrying closing with an increase in total
of Directors, as well as additional is submitted for the following year, a declaration of approval from an tourism stay-overs of three per-
board members, A.T.A. CEO Ronel- and the second is the moment independent accounting com- cent. Aruba’s cruise tourism indus-
la Tjin Asjoe-Croes, members of when the Annual Report is present- pany. For 2019, the firm of Ernst & try closed with a growth of 2.1% in
management, and representatives ed with results from the previous Young was utilized. For the A.T.A. it 2019. The Aruba Hotel and Tourism
of the accounting firm oversee- year. The Annual Report consists is an extensive exercise of utmost Association (AHATA) noted a 7.5%
ing the audit. However, due to the of a general and financial report, importance and an integral part of increase in RevPAR (US$ 233.89).
special circumstances created by as well as a section that focuses its management, existing hand-in- Compared to other destinations in
the COVID-19 pandemic, the re- on the work of the Board of Direc- hand with the law, as well as the the Caribbean, Aruba maintained
port was officially presented by Tjin tors. The general section of the re- code of Good Corporate Gover- its position as the third most suc-
Asjoe-Croes to the minister. port includes a compilation of the nance created by the A.T.A. Ad- cessful destination for overall per-
achievements made in ATA’s vari- ditionally, the A.T.A. receives an formance. When it comes to occu-
As the leading tourism authority ous departments, which include independent financial audit every pancy, Aruba scored highest in the
in Aruba, A.T.A. is very strict in its Marketing, Strategy Planning & quarter. This is done by the inde- Caribbean with 75.1%.
management, allowing various Research, Destination Services, Hu- pendent accounting firm of Grant
independent companies to per- man Resources, Finance, IT, and Thornton. Acknowledgements
form quarterly and annual audits. Facility Management. A.T.A. would like to congratulate its
As of 2011, when the Tourism Of- A.T.A. attaches great importance entire team on another great ac-
fice became independent, we Before the minister approves the to its financial management, as complishment, having been able
can proudly say that the A.T.A. has report, it will be sent to the Aru- well as management that com- to submit the report with a dec-
diligently complied with submitting ban Parliament for review for ten plies with A.T.A.-applicable laws laration of approval. A.T.A. would
its Annual Report, which includes business days. After the report and what constitutes good corpo- also like to thank the Board of Di-
a summary of results and the work has been made available to the rate governance. As such, these rectors for prioritizing this important
steps are a reflection of proper report for the wellbeing of our tour-
checks-and-balances manage- ism sector. Recognition also goes
ment including audits by indepen- to Ernst & Young and the Minister
dent companies according to in- of Tourism for their necessary dili-
ternational regulations. gence with the revisions and ap-
proval of this document.
Results for 2019
Aruba experienced great success We are currently facing a very dif-
and growth over the course of ficult situation. Our Annual Report
2019. The so-called “Tourism Cred- for 2020 will be very different com-
its” were projected to close with pared to reports from past years.
a growth of 4% to 6%. At the end The A.T.A. will do everything it can
of the third quarter of 2019, Aruba to promote our tourism, which is the
had received a total of 1,120,655 pillar of our economy. Economic
stay-over tourists. The main mar- diversification and innovation are
ket for Aruba’s tourism, North of utmost importance and will be a
America, was projected to close central focus during the recupera-
with a growth of 11%, the highest tion of tourism, which will continue
growth since 2004. This, according to be our economic pillar. Let’s
to A.T.A., is the direct result of addi- show it love and care for it! q