WILLEMSTAD – August 8, 2023 – July 2023 has proven to be an outstanding month for Curaçao’s tourism industry, with a remarkable 50,936 stayover arrivals, marking a significant 6% increase compared to the same period last year. This performance makes July 2023 the best-performing month of the year so far, setting the island on course to achieve a historic milestone of half a million visitors later this year. Notably, this also marks the first time that stayover arrivals surpassed 300,000 arrivals in the first seven months of the year. Year to date, Curaçao has welcomed 323,808 stayover arrivals, demonstrating an impressive growth of 17% compared to the 275,799 stayover arrivals during the same period last year.
The image below shows the monthly performance of 2023 compared to the monthly target and last year’s arrivals.
Stayover arrivals July 2023:
CTB sees an exceptional performance of several key source markets in July, who altogether compensated the anticipated fall from the Dutch market. Last year we registered 23,489 Dutch visitors in July, while this year a total of 19,378 Dutch visitors were welcomed, an 18% decrease. The performance of the European region fell by 17%. Nevertheless, the tourist arrivals from the North American region increased by 33%. In total 14,106 North American visitors were recorded, of which 12,457 are residents from the United States of America.
There is also a substantial rise in visitor arrivals out of South America, as the CTB reports a 51% growth in arrivals. In absolute numbers we welcomed 9,203 South American visitors in July. The Caribbean region also shows growth, recording 23% more visitors than last year; 4,020 visitors from the neighboring islands.
The image below shows the performance of each region compared to last year, including the share of the total arrivals.
Top 5 countries:
Altogether the top 5 countries’ market share in arrivals for July 2023 was 77%. Despite the decline from the Netherlands, the country remains the main source market in tourist arrivals. 19,378 Dutch visitors are registered in July. Regardless of recording less Dutch visitors compared to July 2022, CTB reports that arrivals from Holland are higher compared to July 2019, when we recorded 16,456 Dutch visitors. The United States of America, Canada, Brazil, and Colombia recorded strong growth in July. The rise in visitor numbers is attributed to the strategic increase in seat capacity from key international destinations together with our airline partners. Jetblue which now offers 5 weekly flights out of New York, and Air Canada, providing 3 weekly rotations throughout the summer months from gateway Toronto. Last year during the same period, Jetblue and Air Canada offered 3, and 1 weekly flights, respectively. Furthermore, the highly anticipated inaugural flight of Azul Airlines from Belo Horizonte opened new opportunities and strengthened connections with Brazil. It is the first time Brazil crossed the 2,000 visitor arrivals count in a single month. CTB records 2,956 Brazilian visitors in July.
The image below shows the performance of the top 5 countries, including their top 3 states of residence of our visitors.
Accommodation type, average nights, and demographics:
Information gathered from the Immigration card shows that altogether visitors spent 9.5 nights on average in Curaçao. Sixty-one percent of all the visitors stayed in resort hotels. Many of the visitors who travelled in July are between 25 and 44 years old (32%) and 45 and 64 years old (30%). The images below illustrate the accommodation and demographics of the tourists who travelled to Curaçao in July 2023.
