The association of hoteliers in Aruba (AHATA), is now expressing its concerns about the opinions circulating that Aruba has become too expensive. In recent years, various types of measures have been implemented, including in the tourism sector, which is considered the “goose that lays the golden egg.”
Chief Executive Officer of AHATA, Tisa LaSorte, also addressed this issue. Aruba has always been highly successful in tourism. The ultimate proof is how quickly Aruba recovered after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This success has made it easy for politicians to think that this is something that will always be easy.” But it’s been many years of hard work by thousands of people combined with investment and marketing that created the reputation to attract tourists to the island. “But,” LaSorte said, “this does not mean that reputation is not fragile.”
According to the AHATA executive, it is very important that when raising expenses for tourists, the value of what the tourist receives in return is also increased.
Continued investment in the tourism industry is crucial to provide a product of the highest quality. This means good service, solutions to labor shortages, and incentives for owners to continue investing to make the product(s) more beautiful and of better quality. This is necessary especially since in the recent changes, most of the incentives have been removed. “If prices are raised for tourists, introduce some incentives for investors to continue investing in the product(s) we offer.”
