(Oranjestad)—This week, different members from the A.T.A. team of Aruba and Europe, as well as AAA, AHATA and other associates in the tourist industry, are present in Berlin to assist at the flight fair ITB Berlin in person for the first time in 3 years.
ITB brings professionals from the flight world together and has the goal to give associates in the industry the opportunity to meet and strengthen their relationships, while at the same time opening doors for new associates.
In the course of the week, the team at A.T.A. will meet with different airlines like Ving, Aplitour and KLM. They will also meet with hotel representatives and tour operators in Europe, and with associates of AHATA in reference to the European market and the publicist of A.T.A. in Europe, DEPT.
The booth of Aruba will have representatives from 8 different hotels, tour operators and other local companies. This is a good indication that there is a market for this. 2023 includes challenges for this market, as well as opportunities.
British Airways
A key opportunity is the introduction of direct flight with British Airways starting March 26th. The goal is to grow in the English market with 25.56% in 2023 compared to 2019.
Ving with non-stop flights from Sweden and focus continues on Switzerland
Ving will be operating a non-stop flight from Sweden to Aruba starting this October till March of 2024. This flight will also divert into the Norwegian market, which will create more opportunities for further diversification. It must be noted that necessary investigations regarding the strategy for the Swiss market have been finalized. This market is a part of the A.T.A. to investigate and possibly widen in 2023/2024, including due flights. This will be focused on during ITB.
The European market closed 2022 with a recovery rate of 95% compared to 2019, and the goal is to further grow this year. In January, 98,942 stay-over visitors arrived on Aruba. Amongst them, 6,562 visitors were European. The 3 markets that delivered the most visitors from Europe were The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. The biggest airline from Europe was KLM, which had 3.0% of the total visitors in January 2023.
A.T.A., AAA, AHATA and associates in the industry will continue to work together to achieve recovery and growth in each market.
