Statement Curaçao Tourist Board

Willemstad – November 8, 2016 – The Curaçao Tourist Board was surprised by the statement from CHATA “Crisis in the Tourism sector” following their extraordinary meeting. The CTB has worked very closely with the Tourism sector including CHATA the past couple of months, and met on several occasions, which included a democratic dialogue, a world café session and the introduction of several workgroups such as Funding, Marketing and Beautification for the implementation of the Tourism Master Plan 2015 – 2020, with the main objective to include as many stakeholders into the planning and organization of our marketing activities. It is based on this input and the agreements made during these different sessions that we prepared a short- and long term strategy and plan of action. Therefore, it remains unclear how the CHATA board concludes that the “Crisis in the Tourism sector” is due to the lack of influence on the destination’s marketing executed by the CTB. So it is with great disbelief that we took notice of the conclusion from the CHATA retreat as indicated in the press release issued today. CTB is aware of the challenges we are facing in the different markets, with the elections in the US and the political situation in Venezuela. The performance of the Tourism sector, however fragile at the moment, does not justify such distress and mistrust as the island’s performance is better than many of our competitor islands. The CTB believes that in these challenging times we shouldn’t lose focus, rather unite forces and work together in order to improve the performance of the Tourism sector, thus creating jobs and improving the quality of life on the island. We should consistently maintain our course as was agreed in the various sessions organized during the year, the outlook is positive as long as we keep calm and continue executing our planned activities. The CTB welcomes all feedback and ideas and wants us to work together #Huntu.