468.442 Stay over arrivals results in 3% growth
WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) reports a 3% growth in stay over arrivals in the year 2015. In total 468.442 stay over visitors were welcomed in the course of this year, nearly 14.000 additional overseas visits were registered in 2015.
Last year we counted 454.558 arrivals. The year 2015 started very strong in the first quarter of 2015 booking double digit growth with 13% in January and 11% for both February and March 2015. The second quarter of the year experienced a downfall in June of 9% less visitors. The second quarter is also known as Curacao’s tourism low season with May and June as the months when less visitors travel to Curaçao.
As for the third quarter, positive growth is measured in September 2015 (6%). This is the effect of the Curaçao North Sea Jazz festival arrivals.
The slight decrease of 2% in August 2015 is the effect of the switch in festival days from the previous year. The last quarter of the year which started with slightly decreases in October and November, closed with a spike in arrivals in December 2015. Remarkable is a difference of at least 16.000 visitors between the least and best performed months of 2015.
Utilizing the ‘Turistika Model’, CTB and MEO calculated in terms of the contribution to our economy, that tourism contributed with a direct impact of $448.2 million in the year 2015. This is a 6% increase compared to the year 2014, when the direct impact from the tourism industry was $ 421.9 million.
European visitors are responsible for 45.4% of the total expenditure on island. Altogether Europeans spent a total $203.4 million US dollars.
They were followed by the South Americans who spent $119.6 million US dollars and the North Americans who spent $86.6 million US dollars.
The Caribbean visitors spent a total of $24.7 million US dollars in 2015. This direct spending transpired mainly in the accommodation, food & beverage, shopping activities, transportation sector and direct taxes. The respective share of total spend is 36%, 24%, 23%, 9% and 8%.
Bron: Curacaochronicle