…24% increase in stayover arrivals…
WILLEMSTAD – May 20th, 2019
April Visitor Arrivals 2019
CTB reports another month recording over forty thousand stayover visitor arrivals. The latest tourism statistics show an increase of 24% in stayover visitors for April 2019. With 40,284 stayover arrivals in April, there were 7,793 more visitors than was recorded in April 2018.
The Netherlands recorded 7% more stayover visitors in April. In total 16,151 stayover visitors were welcomed out of our main producing country. Germany recorded an excellent performance by doubling the number of visitors of last year. German visitors are known to travel for Easter holiday and this year was no exception. A 106% growth is registered to 2,243 arrivals from Germany. Meanwhile Europe as a whole had an 18% increase producing 21,620 visitors in April.
The North American market continues to flourish with a 14% increase in April 2019. The double-digit growth is primarily attributable to a 23% jump in US arrivals, proving that the launch of the new branding campaign along with the continued support of our partners continue to reap rewards for the island in the form of increased visitor arrivals. We welcomed 8,157 stayover visitors from North America in the month of April.
The South American region is making waves with a reported increase of 67% in April 2019. “Semana Santa”, which fell in April this year, is the best-known travel time for South Americans, particularly Colombians. Additional airlift has also played an integral role. On April 11, Wingo launched twice-weekly service from Bogota to Curaçao, while in the last year; Avianca added four additional flights from Bogota. COPA Airlines is also operating seven weekly flights to Curaçao from Panama, compared to four flights in 2018. Together these moves boosted stayover arrivals from Colombia and Brazil. Colombia with 2,703 visitors registered an increase of 218% stayover visitors, at the same time traffic from Brazil grew by 35%, registering 973 Brazilian visitors.
The overall visitor nights grew by 20% in April 2019. In total 345 thousand visitor nights are registered. Out of Europe, tourists spent 224 thousand nights in Curaçao, a 16% increase. North and South American visitors spent respectively 54 and 44 thousand visitor nights in April.
Year to date: January through April 2019
The overall stayover visitor arrivals grew by 17% in the first four months of 2019. All reporting regions grew to date. In total 167 thousand visitors are registered from January through April 2019. Out of Europe, we welcomed 87 thousand tourists in Curaçao, a 12% increase. From North and South America, we welcomed 42 and 23 thousand visitors respectively. The North American region grew by 19%, traffic from the South American region increased by 31%. Our neighboring islands from the Caribbean provided 10 thousand visitors during this period, an 8% growth.
