WILLEMSTAD – December 15, 2023 – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is reporting 519,016 stayover visitor arrivals in the eleven months of 2023, which is a 17% growth compared to the same period last year. The stayover arrivals registered in the same period of 2022 was 444,635. As announced on November 20th a total of 500,000 stayover arrivals have been welcomed so far. With just one month to go, CTB announces with great satisfaction that 2023 is a record-breaking year in number of stayover arrivals. December is historically known as one of the best performing months. With the additional air service scheduled in December, an impressive first half of the month is being monitored by CTB, indicating December will outperform all previous months of 2023.
The image below shows the monthly performance of 2023 compared to the monthly target and last year’s arrivals.
Stayover arrivals highlights in November 2023:
In overall Curaçao Tourist Board reports it greeted 52,179 stayover arrivals in November 2023, 18% more than 44,058 stayover arrivals received in November 2022. Until now, November is the top performing month in absolute numbers breaking the previous record of July 2023 when 50,937 stayover arrivals were registered. The top performing source countries in absolute number of arrivals in November are The Netherlands, United States of America, Colombia, Canada, and Brazil. Altogether these 5 countries share in arrivals are 78%.
The Netherlands: The primary source market experienced a minor downturn, recording 2% fewer stayover arrivals, with a total of 18,326 Dutch arrivals in November 2023. The source market fell short with 389 arrivals. With the start of three weekly service out of Amsterdam with Corendon Airlines and increase of air service with TUI, it is notable that stayover arrivals from the Dutch market are close to the 2022 monthly level. CTB projects an increase in stayover arrivals out of the Netherlands in December when Corendon Airlines will add two additional weekly flights bringing the total rotations out of Amsterdam to five weekly flights starting December 16th , TUI will fly double daily during the month and KLM will service Curaçao with double daily rotations in the last week of December.
United States of America Visitors: From the United States of America, the market continued to show a steady total of arrivals of 11,207 arrivals in November, a 20% growth compared to November 2022. Curaçao has welcomed a remarkable total of 126,461 arrivals in the first eleven months of 2023. The share in arrivals out of USA is so far 24% in the first eleven months of 2023. CTB anticipates this source market also to contribute to a spectacular record-breaking tourism year for Curaçao.
Colombia Visitors: Stayover arrivals out of Colombia grew recording 79% in November. It is the first time Curaçao has welcomed over 4,000 stayover arrivals from Colombia. In total 4,421 Colombians were welcomed in November 2023. So far, we have registered 34,008 Colombian visitors in Curaçao in the past eleven months of 2023, which is a first. The year-to-date share of arrivals out of the Latin American country is 7%.
Canada Visitors: In total 3,954 Canadians were welcomed in November 2023, 69% more than the 2,335 Canadians recorded in November 2022. Year-round Curacao had three weekly service with Air Canada out of Toronto. Year-to-date a total of 27,582 Canadians has visited Curacao. It is expected that we will welcome over 30,000 Canadians by end of 2023. This milestone is thanks to the directly service with Air Canada and WestJet.
Brazilian Visitors: A total of 2,748 Brazilian visitors are recorded in November, summarizing a 222% growth compared to November 2022, when 853 Brazilian visitors were registered. The twice weekly direct service out of Belo Horizonte with Azul Airlines and other connecting options through Panama with Copa Airlines or Bogota with Avianca, in combination with continued marketing efforts in Brazil shows positive outcome for Curaçao. The current year-to-date arrivals out of Brazil are 23,150 arrivals, a 153% growth compared to the same period last year.
The images below show the performance of each region compared to last year, including the share of the total arrivals and the performance of the top 5 countries, including their top 3 states of residence of our visitors.
Stayover, cruise, and day trippers:
Altogether 139,251 visitors were welcomed in November 2023. As mentioned before 52,179 stayover arrivals were registered arriving through CUR airport. These visitors stayed at least one night with a maximum of 90 days. Another 1,915 arrivals were registered via CUR airport, however departing the same day of arrival, also known as day trippers.
According to the Curaçao Ports Authority, a total of 85,157 cruise visitors are registered in November. The total number of arrivals in November is 6% more compared to November 2022 when we welcomed a total of 131,066 visitors.
In the eleven months of 2023, the total number of arrivals amounted to 1.1 million consisting of (519,016 stayover, 17,314-day trippers and 596,551 cruise visitors). Last year the first eleven months of the year recorded a total of 892 thousand visitors.
