Year to Date (January through October 2016 Arrivals)
WILLEMSTAD – December 6, 2016 – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) reports a preliminary growth of 3% during the first ten months of 2016, when leaving aside the negative impact from Venezuela on the year to date arrivals. Traffic from the neighbor country Venezuela showed a slowdown this year causing a negative impact on our overall performance. Venezuelan arrivals are short by 20,697 visitors in the first ten months, resulting in a 28% decrease on the year to date performance.
The total number of stayover arrivals from January through October 2016 reached a total of 367,339; this is a decrease of 3% compared to last year.
The visitor arrivals from Europe grew by 5% to reach a total of 170,732 stayover visitors in the first ten months of 2016. The European region represents 46.5% share of total visitors to Curaçao. The remaining regions; North America and Caribbean recorded a decrease of respectively 3% and 1% in the first ten months of 2016. In absolute numbers we counted respectively 64,100 and 28,288 stayover arrivals year to date.
CTB and MEO utilizes the ‘Turistika Model’ to calculate the economic impact generated from the tourism industry. During the first ten months of 2016 a direct impact of $ 416 million US dollars is generated for the local economy. 51.9% of the total direct impact is generated from European visitors who are responsible for $ 215.7 million US dollars. The North American, South American and other regions generated respectively $ 84.7, $ 87.4 and $ 28.2 million US dollars.
October 2016 Arrivals
The European region, reported an increase of 6% arrivals in October 2016, the increase represents 407 more visitors compared to last year. In absolute numbers a total of 18,187 visitors were counted in October 2016. The Netherlands, the main producing country, reported a growth of 3% to a total of 13,515 stayover visitors. From Germany a total growth of 12% is registered. The strong consecutive marketing efforts in both countries have showed positive performance over the last months.
The Caribbean region, with a total of 3,194 visitors, recorded a decrease of 7% in October 2016. The number of arrivals from Aruba and Trinidad and Tobago had a negative impact on the monthly results. By contrast Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica reported increases of respectively 4%, 88% and 16% compared to October 2015.
Curaçao welcomed 4,583 visitors from North America in October 2016. October is known as a slowdown season from North America. Canada registered 3% more visitors in October 2016 compared to October 2015. Visitors from The United States of America are down by 16% compared to October 2015. From the US we are seeing a growth in the New York region, as a result of our right now in Curaçao campaign. The overall decrease from USA is due to less seats capacity from the other feeder regions.
South America registered a decrease of 53% with a total of 6,964 compared to 14,693 last year. Venezuela with a total of 3,206 visitors registered a drop of 71% compared to last year. The demand from Colombia and Brazil is increasing. Colombia registered a growth of 13% to reach a total of 1,098 visitors compared to 969 last year. Brazil registered a growth of 39%. In total 894 Brazilian visitors are welcomed in October 2016 compared to 644 last year.
Visitor Nights:
In October we registered an increase of average visitor nights per stay of 18%. On average visitors stayed 8.2 nights per person in October 2016. Last year the average nights per person was recorded at 6.9 nights. In terms of visitor nights a slight decrease of 2% is recorded in October 2016. A total of 279,603 visitor nights were registered compared to 286,537 last year. This is a result of the reduced amount of visitors.
For the remainder of 2016 prospects are positive. The forward bookings for our main markets of focus are very promising; we expect a big growth from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Colombia and the US for the upcoming quarter.
