ORANJESTAD — Once more Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) is ready to welcome more than 50 participants, mainly from the North American market, at the ‘Annual Tourism Conference Aruba’ (ATCA) taking place 15th to 19th of May 2018. The participants are tour operators, local and international airlines, hotels, representatives of Aruba in North America and also local stake holders.
What is ATCA?
Stake holders and agencies have a common goal to sell Aruba abroad. The objective of ATCA is to take the opportunity to broaden the knowledge of Aruba for this group and at the same time enforce the relationship. This of course with the focus on enriching our touristic market.
Participants will also be able to share their successful experiences, strategic goals and bind with ATA offices in the United States as well as Aruba. These kind of meetings are important and will provide a strategic view on the coming year for Aruba’s incoming tourism market, in this case the continent that provides in the majority of visitors coming to our island: North America. This year an increase of 3.6 % is projected for the United States, 3 % for Canada, resulting in an overall increase of 3.6 % for 2018.
The Program
The conference starts off with a reception at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino
Tuesday evening in honor of the participants of ATCA. The official opening takes place Thursday morning where Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) together with Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA) and Aruba Airport Authority N.V.(AAA) welcome the participants at the Renaissance Convention Center. The conference is only open for invites and the CEO of ATA will present “A.T.A.’s Strategic Direction for 2018: The Big Picture”. CMO of AHATA Jim Hepple will speech too and “Gateway 2030“, the Expansion Project of Aruba Airport Authority N.V. is presented by James Fazio,CEO Aruba Airport Authority N.V. The “Evolution of the North America Creative Campaign”, will be introduced by Sanju Luidens, CMO of A.T.A. and finally “Authentic Aruba: A first look at the Strategic & Creative Evolution”, is
presented by Gregg Wasiak and John Speers of The Concept Farm, and ‘advertising agency’ for Aruba in North America.
The afternoon ATCA offers participants several activities to get to know the island. There will be the possibility to enjoy a cruise along the South Coast to discover different beaches. The night will offer a cultural and gastronomic experience in the center of Oranjestad where a visit is also paid to Cosecha art center to get introduced to the work of our local artisans. Thursday during the day ATA has walk in sessions and participants can also discover ‘Path to
Happiness.’ In this way the different ‘niches’ in the market will be presented and the diversity of the island is explored in the areas of romance, gastronomy, family joy, well-being and so on. Several inspection visits will be paid to accommodations, and in the afternoon one will continue with the toruistic marketplace, the most important part of this conference.
The marketplace is the place where partners can meet, negotiate and share. This is the place
where strategics can be discussed more profound and initiatives can be shared on the field of
intelligence, innovation and integration. These sessions will proceed on Friday all day.
Naturally, during the program, the participants have the opportunity to discover our island by
jeep or catamaran or elseway. Friday evening ATCA 2018 will have its closure with a reception at
the Archeological Museum.
