In the month of January, Aruba’s exit strategy, with the goal of returning to normalcy, was announced. The exit strategy was a very important step in Aruba’s recovery of tourism. The ‘travel mandate’ to Aruba was changed to attract more tourists to the island. The Omicron variant had its effects on Aruba’s tourism and this was felt in the month of January 2022. For 2022, it is projected that the recovery rate will be between 85% and 100% for tourism compared to 2019, when Aruba saw its best year in history for tourism.
One highlight in the month of January in 2022, was the fact that regardless of the fall in tourist visitors, a recovery of 79% was still seen in the “tourism receipt” indicator which measures the important facet of tourist quality.
Last week the government made the decision that Aruba will go back to normalcy and eliminate all existing measures. With this, the focus for Aruba is to aim itself on the recovery of tourism so that the economy can recover and to create new opportunities that Aruba needs.
On Saturday, a total of 5316 tourists arrived at our airport of which, 4384 were from the United States which is also our most important market. Sunday was Celebrity Sunday where our maritime borders celebrated the arrival of two Celebrity Cruises ships. All of this created the perspective we need. We are also seeing that the “load factors” of aircraft are increasing and already reaching around 70%. Airlines are keeping up with their seating capacity specifically bound for Aruba. This surely increases the confidence airlines have with the product Aruba.
Minister of Tourism and Public Health, Dangui Oduber, is satisfied with the weekend in which we saw many tourists arriving either through the airport or the cruise terminal. A weekend with a lot of work for our taxi drivers, tour operators, restaurants and shops.
