Curaçao upbeat about tourism rebound
Published:Monday | May 30, 2022 | 12:16 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Janine De Windt, regional manager, Curaçao Tourist Board, is very upbeat that Jamaica will continue to help her country with its path to tourism recovery from the negative effects of the pandemic.
One way in which Jamaica has already started is by facilitating a straight flight, which was launched late last year, from Jamaica to Curaçao and vice versa on Mondays and Fridays with Jetair Caribbean, and the opening of Sandals Royal Curaçao in June.
Since the start of the year, Jamaica has assisted Curaçao with the arrival of 72 passengers in January, 103 in February, 115 in March, and 227 in April.
TARGET AUDIENCE
During a presentation on Wednesday at the Global Trade Symposium at the Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort in Curaçao, Windt said that for the year 2022, Curaçao is targeting 375,000 guests.
Additionally, Curaçao had approximately 265,000 arrivals in 2021 and 174,873 in 2020, during the pandemic.
Before the start of the pandemic in 2019, the country boasted the arrival of 463,683 tourists.
For 2023, that country is projecting to have 487,500 visitors, and 560,625 in 2024. Windt explained to The Gleaner that they believe Jamaica will help them in achieving these targets.
“We will be working with the Free Zones, Jetair, doing a lot of promotions, then you can see that it will be increasing the arrivals. And also, very important, now that Sandals will be opening this week here in Curaçao, we will see a lot of people coming to stay at the resort. So those are the big things we can expect,” Windt said.
She added: “The Sandals brand is a very big chain, world-renowned, especially in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and South America; so we are expecting a lot of visitors coming to stay there.”
Within the Caribbean, she said, Aruba, Suriname and Trinidad are major islands and connection points, which Curaçao envisions will assist them with their tourism industry’s recovery process as well.