WILLEMSTAD – March 8, 2017 – CTB and MEO utilizes the ‘Turistika Model’ to calculate the economic impact generated from the tourism industry. During the first month of 2017 we see an increase of 2.8% direct impact to the local economy.
A direct impact of $ 51.2 million US dollars is generated for the local economy. Last year January generated $ 49.8 million US dollars. 53.3% of the total direct impact is generated from European visitors who are responsible for $ 27.4 million US dollars. The North American, South American and other regions generated respectively $ 12.8, $ 8.5 and $ 2.5 million US dollars.
The total spending per visitor derives from the number of nights spent on island. Growth to the local economy is due to the fact that visitors from the European region stayed longer on island.
Curaçao welcomed in total 38,744 stayover visitors in January 2017, a decrease of 7% compared to the same month last year. Half of all stayover arrivals are from Europe. We welcomed in total 19,300 stayover visitors from Europe, where both target markets The Netherlands and Germany registered positive results.
Stayover visitor arrivals from North America decreased by 4%. In absolute numbers, we welcomed 8,406 North American visitors. The region holds 21.7% market share of all visitor arrivals to Curaçao and is the second largest region that contributes to visitor arrivals in January.
Although all South American markets report significant growth, the 50% fall off in tourists from Venezuela, has caused a decrease 22% for this region. In January we welcomed a total of 7,808 stayover visitors from South America.
From the Caribbean we welcomed 2,273 visitors, an increase of 2% compared to January 2016.
January Arrivals 2017
January is categorized as the peak month for visitors from the European market.
In January, Curaçao welcomed a total of 14,993 stayover visitors from the Netherlands, an increase of 1% compared to January 2016. Visitors from Holland stayed longer and travelled with larger families than previous year. The average night per visitor in January 2017 from The Netherlands was 12.2 nights per person. Last year January we saw that visitors from Holland stayed on average 11.3 nights. Another indicator is that we can conclude that Dutch visitors are travelling with larger families. There is a 21% increase of children between 0 and 14 year old, in total 837 visitors in the age bracket. Last year, we counted 689 in the same age bracket. While we see more children arriving we saw only a slight increase of 1% of those between 45 and 64 years old.
The amount of stayover visitors from Germany registered an increase of 11%, counting 1,831 visitors. In January 2016 we welcomed 1,656 German visitors.
CTB registered a total of 8,406 stayover visitors from North America in January 2017, ranking North America the second biggest contributor in terms of visitor arrivals this month.
The seasonality in the tourism industry is best shown by Canada. During the cold season, December to March, there is an increase in air connectivity with a weekly flight from Montreal and 4 weekly flights from the Toronto. January is the peak month for Canadian visitors. Curaçao welcomed a total of 3,270 stayover
visitors from Canada. From the United States of America 5,136 stayover visitors are registered. A slightly 2% decrease, which represent a loss of only 124 visitors.
In January we welcomed a total of 7,808 stayover visitors from South America. This is the first time CTB registered less visitor arrivals from the South American region compared to the North American region. This fall is due to the continuing drop in stayover arrivals from Venezuela, with 50% less stayover visitors compared to last year. In January we welcomed 3,240 stayover visitors from Venezuela.
Colombia arrivals performed very well compared to last year. We registered an increase of 53% to a total of 1,879 stayover visitors from Colombia. The growth from Colombia is the direct effect of charter flights from Colombia. Brazil registered a growth of 16% to a reach a total of 1,259 visitors in January. The continuous marketing effort in Brazil accompanied with better political and economic situation in Brazil is also resulting in positive performance.
The Caribbean region registered an increase of 2%, with a total of 2,273 stayover visitors in January. Aruba registered a decrease of 3% with a total of 1,027 arrivals. The increase in visitors is namely from Dominican Republic and Haiti, with respectively 10% and 45% growth.
Visitor Nights
In January we registered an increase of average visitor nights per stay of 10%. On average visitors stayed 9.2 nights in January. Last year the average nights per person was recorded at 8.4 nights. In terms of visitor nights an increase of 2% is recorded in January 2017. A total of 358,197 visitor nights were registered compared to 349,557 last year.
More than half of the visitor nights are from the European region, holding 64.1% share of the visitor nights. In total visitor form Europe stayed 229,461 nights in Curaçao. Last year visitors from this region registered in total 213,230 nights.
