WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is pleased to report another month of positive visitor arrivals for the tourism sector. The total number of stay over arrivals increased by 4% in May, from 32.421 in May 2014 to 33.677 in May 2015.
This 4% growth is an additional 1.256 visitors. 43.1% of the total arrivals originated from Europe, while 27.7% came from South America and 19.9% from North America. The share from the Caribbean islands was 6.7% in May.
The European market recorded a good performance with 9.5% more visitors in May 2015. The region provided a total of 15.080 stay over arrivals compared to the 13.772 recorded in May 2014. The main producing country, The Netherlands recorded an 11% increase with 12.086 in May 2015 compared to 10.932 in 2014. Germany increased recording 24% more visitors in May 2015. A total of 1.555 visitors were registered. Last year this same month recorded 1.252 German visitors.
The South American market recorded a 5.87% decrease in May 2015, with a total of 8.813 stay over arrivals compared to 9.363 in 2014. The strong demand from Venezuela reversed after positive performance during the first quarter of 2015. May also registered a 7% decrease from Venezuela. A total of 5.534 visitors were counted in May 2015, compared to the 5.954 visitor arrivals of last year. Visitor arrivals from Brazil, Colombia and Suriname registered respectively 1%, 13% and 17% less visitors in May.
In absolute figures CTB registered 797, 791 and 773 visitor arrivals from Brazil, Colombia and Suriname. The CTB is focusing its marketing efforts to deliver better results from Brazil and Colombia with the two-weekly inaugural non-stop flight from Manaus, Brazil with InselAir as per July 3rd and the elimination of the Colombian visa as per July 1 st. The potential for growth from both South American countries is positive in the second half of this year.
Traffic from North America was up by 26.65% from 4.784 stay over visitors in May 2014 to 6.059 stay over visitors in May 2015. The United States with 5.085 stay over arrivals recorded a 12% increase. The information gathered from the Embarkation cards show that a total of 17.4% of all the US visitors are residing in New York.
The next largest group is from the State of Florida (16.4%), followed by New Jersey (5.2%), California (4.2%) and Pennsylvania (4.1%). Canada recorded an exponential growth of 270% increase with 974 stay over arrivals this May 2015. Last year May registered only 263 stay over visitors. This increase is directly attributable to the year-round service from Toronto with Air Canada rouge. The Curaçao Tourist Board forecasts further growth from Canada this year. In the effort to establish continued growthfrom this region, the combined marketing actions with partners in the tourism industry are set to book a significant improvement in the performance of the North American market.
Visitor arrivals from the Caribbean islands recorded an 8.65% increase. A total of 3.016 visitor arrivals were counted in comparison with last year’s arrival total of 2.776 visitors. Arrivals from Aruba recorded a flat growth of 0% with a total of 1.434 visitors. Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica also registered good performance with respectively 88% and 7% growth.
Bron: CuracaoChronicle