WILLEMSTAD – June 15, 2022 – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is reporting 35,813 stayover visitor arrivals for the month of May. With these arrivals, May 2022 achieved 98% of the pre pandemic arrivals of May 2019, when we welcomed 36,386 stayover visitors. May is known as a slow month, however current performance showed that Curacao’s tourism recovery is solid.
From these 35,813 arrivals, 60% traveled from Europe, 14% from North America, 15% from South America, 8% from the Caribbean region and 3% from the rest of the world. In overall, we welcomed an average of 1,155 stayover visitors per day who spent a total of 328,243 visitor nights in Curaçao.
We welcomed 18,868 Dutch visitors in May, which is 20% more than May 2019 (pre-pandemic). Out of Germany and Belgium, we registered 939 and 659 visitors respectively. Arrivals out of Belgium are 57% up compared to the pre-pandemic arrivals of May 2019, when we registered 419 Belgium visitors. The growth out of Belgium is a direct effect of the double weekly flights from Brussels with Air Belgium. Fifty-seven percent of the European visitors who visited Curaçao in May stayed in resort hotels.
From the United States of America, we welcomed 4,761 visitors in May 2022. Three hundred and fifty-two visitors were welcomed out of Canada. In total we welcomed 5,113 visitors from North America. North American visitors stayed 68% in resort hotels.
We welcomed 5,327 from the South American region. Of the South America arrivals, 2,297 (43%), 740 (14%) and 526 (10%) traveled from Colombia, Brazil and Suriname, respectively. Fifty-five percent (55%) of all South American visitors stayed in resort hotels. From the Caribbean region, we have welcomed 2,738 stayover visitors in May, primarily from the Dutch Kingdom islands.
There were 8 cruise ship calls and 28,362 cruise visitors for the month of May.
Year to Date arrivals: January through May 2022
In total 190 thousand visitors are registered from January through May 2022. Out of Europe, we welcomed 124 thousand tourists in Curaçao. From North and South America, we welcomed 31 and 21 thousand visitors respectively. Our neighboring islands from the Caribbean provided 9 thousand visitors during this period. Our progress to recoup our pre-pandemic production continues in the right direction. We have recovered 93% of the tourist arrivals in the first five months of the year. In the first five months of 2019 we have registered 203,845 visitors.
