Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) informs the community about the latest situation regarding our tourism industry including the most updated figures.
Tourism ‘stay-over’
During the month of January 2021 our island welcomed a total of 31.368 ‘stay-over’ visitors. Out of this group, 26.860 were coming from the northern part of the US and 1.843 flew in from different European countries. 2.665 tourists were arriving from regional destinations.
Visitors and accommodations
27.1 % of the visitors stayed in a high-rise hotel while 6.7 % booked a low-rise resort. 39.9 % were time share resort guests and 26.3 % chose for an alternative accommodation. The age of the majority of the visitors during the month of January was between 20 and 49 years old (15.624 persons) and between 50 and 59 years old (5.923 persons).
Hotels/Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA)
According to AHATA the ‘Average Daily Rate’ (ADR) in the month of January was 20 % lower than in the same month in 2020. January 2020 showed an ADR of $ 371.78 while this year the ADR was $ 297.45 in January. The RevPAR which is the revenue per available room decreased with 73.9 % from $ 286.60 in 2020 to $ 74.70 in 2021. The hotel occupancy shows a decline of 67.4 % in comparison with January 2020, this year’s occupancy was 25.1 % in January. The numbers AHATA provides are based on the information from 19 resorts and 6 time share resorts representing the majority of the hotels with the exception of the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino.
What to expect for the remaining first quarter of 2021?
Based on the different current developments and also by analyzing the aerial transportation status, we can conclude a conservative scenario which is applicable to the first quarter of 2021 and projected for February and March. The scenario pictures a total of 34.000 tourists in February and a total of 42.000 tourist for March. The expected projection for February and March is in line with the conservative scenario concluding that we close this first quarter of 2021 with the conservative outlook.
Cruise tourism
The cruise industry is paralyzed since the beginning of the pandemic and there is still no concrete date of an operational restart of this sector in the Caribbean. The cruise industry is pending information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the approved protocol in relation with COVID-19 for the cruise industry. The cruise ships you might observe in Aruba’s port are here for a so-called ‘warm lay-up’ which can be translated as being standby in case of a restart of operations. This activity generates a certain income for Aruba’s economy among others because the ships purchase the needed products from our local market. There are no tourists on board of these ships, the ships are manned by a skeleton crew who follow the local and international COVID-19 protocol strictly.
Tourism credits / Central Bank of Aruba
Informed by the Central Bank of Aruba the ‘tourism credits’ (previously named ‘tourism receipts’) for the first six months of 2020 contributed AWG 1.174 million to our economy which is 40 % less compared to the same period in 2019. This of course is due to the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 where Aruba had to close their borders temporarily from March 2020 to July 2020. Like other destinations our island is experiencing challenging times in regards to the current pandemic. It is important to follow the protocol informed by several organizations because together we can overcome and have our tourism flourish again.
