WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is pleased to report an additional 5.210 visitors in the third month of the year. Visitor arrivals in March 2016 increased recording double digit growth of 13% compared to March 2015.
Until now, it is the best performing month, where all regions recorded positive growth. Altogether a total of 44.736 visitors were registered against 39.526 in the same month last year.
Stay over arrivals from North America increased by 6% in March with a total of 9.184 visitors compared to the 8.695 visitor arrivals in March 2015. The United States with 6.462 stay over arrivals recorded an 8% increase. Canada recorded a slight 1% increase with 2.722 stay over arrivals this March 2016. Both countries are seeing the influence of combined marketing actions with partners in the tourism industry, which caused a significant improvement in the performance of the North American market.
The South American market increased by 15% in March 2016, with a total of 12.349 stay over arrivals compared to 10.721 in 2015. Demand out of Venezuela bounced back, growing strong in March 2016. From Venezuela a 16% increase is registered with a total of 8.536 visitors being counted 2016, compared to the 7.354 visitor arrivals of last year. More in depth figures shows that only 23% of the Venezuelan visitors stayed at registered accommodations, while last year 42% of the visitors chose for this accommodation type indicating a shift in consume characteristics Colombia and Suriname also registered increases in stay over arrivals of respectively 15% and 49%. In absolute figures Colombia and Suriname registered 1.216 and 1.051 stay over arrivals. Brazil showed a decrease of 24%.
The European market recorded an increase of 13% in March 2016. The region provided a total of 19.103 stay over arrivals compared to the 16.912 recorded in March 2015. The main producing country, The Netherlands recorded a 5% increase with 12.453 visitors in March 2016 compared to 11.883 in 2015. Germany increased recording 15% more visitors in March 2016. A total of 3.261 visitors were registered. Last year, in this same month 2.830 German visitors were counted. From Belgium a 154% increase is registered, with a total of 1.224 stay-over visitors in March 2016. This increase is attributable to the shift of the Easter vacation.
The Caribbean region grew by recording 30% more visitors in March 2016. Aruban visitors increased by 60%, representing 1.487 stay over visitors in absolute numbers. The increase from our neighbor island is mainly seen during the Easter weekend. Trinidad & Tobago also recorded good performance with 18% more visitors.
In terms of visitor nights a slight 2% decrease is registered. The only region recording positive growth in visitor nights is Europe. From this region an increase of 2% is registered. The North American, South American and Caribbean region recorded respectively 4%, 6% and 10% less visitor nights compared to March 2015. The March performance is remarkable in that it indicates more visitors staying less nights. On average all visitors in March stayed 7.4 nights, while last year the visitors stayed 8.6 nights.
Bron: CuracaoChronicle