Aruba boosted its destiny at CHTA Marketplace exhibition

In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Ronela Asjoe, CEO of Aruba Tourism Authority.

What do you think about your participation here in this incredible event?

It is always important to be present at this event, because it gives us the platform to have a good idea of ​​the market and how the business is moving, and it gives us information about what to expect in the coming months. We are very grateful again to be able to come with full agendas both days in Aruba. And I can say that the outlook looks positive.

Many delegates from Latin America were invited for the first time. What was that experience like for you?

Good, because we are one of the main destinations in the Caribbean to serve that market. There are markets in Latin America that we have been investing in for more than 40 years. So, Aruba is one of the Caribbean destinations with Latin style, close to Latin America and with the ability to speak the language. That certainly gives us added value. We have an office in Bogotá, from there we manage the Latin American region. So the Latin American market has represented the historical figure for Aruba of around 15%. And when Venezuela was stronger, that was the second largest market. It is an important region. We had meetings with Latin American partners, and we already attended many key events in Latin America this year, to have a good pulse of the business and how we are moving.

What are your next steps for the rest of the year?  

In terms of the US market, our main market, we will continue to be present and follow a diversification strategy. So we've done some serious analysis to identify which new markets in the US we'd like to continue growing. In addition, we will continue to diversify our regional markets, growing the Latin American market and trying to grow the European market. For Latin America, we would like to see a stable Colombia, which is the number one market in the region, and we would like to grow Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru.

And for the European market, we would like to continue growing, among others, in the United Kingdom and Germany, and Italy, in addition to our main market, the Netherlands. And explore a new one, which is Switzerland. We will continue to work on that and all of this is in line with the growth of rooms on the islands. 

We will have an expansion of 900 hotel rooms, taking into account that Iberia Star will open its doors on November 1, St Regis will open in the first quarter of 2025 and Secrets in 2025 on February 1. Aside from that, we have Hilton expanding, also with 160 rooms. So we need to keep moving to make sure we serve these properties as well, and maintain the good performance we've seen so far over the years since we reopened after the pandemic. 

Can you give me some comments on the top airline and cruise line news? 

With our US market we have recovered the seating capacity from before the pandemic. So compared to 2019 we have grown, and in addition, we are seeing overall seating capacity growth this year of around 15% compared to last year. From the Latin American region, I would say that in addition to the growth that we have seen through existing partners, such as Copa, Avianca and Wingo, we also have the introduction of a new partner, which is LATAM Airlines. They started last year, December, with two frequencies, eight weeks of operation. They increase to three for the summer months, and we expect further growth in that regard. And for the European region, the highlight is the introduction of British Airways to Aruba last year in March. And of course, we will continue to ensure that we maintain daily flights with KLM to Aruba, which helps serve all other markets on the European continent.

In terms of cruise tourism, we have fully recovered and expect growth of around 7% in passengers. This goes hand in hand with a lot of product development and investment on the islands to make sure we can serve all visitors, because with more visitors we have to be more vigilant in terms of sustainability. Not only taking into account our population, but also the number and flow of people arriving on the island. We were happy to see the introduction of the Aruba Conservation Foundation about a month ago to the island. On the land front, approximately 25% of the territory is protected, and they also take care of marine parks, of which we have four around the island. That's an example of something we're very proud of, aside from all these things I'm talking about. 

And another thing that's important is working with local communities, right? 

Yes, we have different programs in which we provide opportunities to local entrepreneurs to not only align with the vision of what we believe they have to offer as a service that matches what tourists are looking for, but to think about authentic experiences, of wellness. 

We want to grow the wedding market. We have a program called Aruba Exclusive Experiences. We worked with a microfinance bank and launched this program with them. Entrepreneurs who want to participate are given financing and training, and then they can present an entrepreneur who fits within the niches we want to promote in Aruba. Winners receive full guidance from the Aruba Tourism Authority when establishing their business, and also receive marketing support from the refereeing authority. We launched this after the pandemic and are happy to see that there have already been several winners. That's just one example of how we make sure to collaborate with local communities. 

We support many cultural projects, many initiatives such as events, artists and the creative industry in general. We also support gastronomy. We will be launching a new culinary event in October, called Authentic, providing the opportunity for our local talent to perform and for our students to be inspired and involved.