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We are proud of the consistent and continued positive performance of our tourism sector. Aruba continues to be one of the top performers in the Caribbean region. The demand and price positioning are amongst the highest. While this is the case, our destination is at a crossroads. In this regard it is crucial to acknowledge a shift in sentiment towards tourism worldwide. Overtourism, the excessive negative impact of tourism on the host communities and natural environment is real, and in Aruba, we are not immune to this globally increasing wave of sentiment. In Aruba, our locals are very cognizant of the importance of tourism, this was again reconfirmed in another local sentiment survey. 68% of the population indicated to be happy with our tourism industry while for the hospitality sector 75% said to be happy with the industry. Locals did express concerns in several areas, however. Concerns include unpayable housing for locals, pressure on our infrastructure, lack of benefit that locals derive from tourismgenerated revenue, and damage to nature and the environment. It is no secret that the 90s destination development growth model does not apply today nor will it apply in the future. This realization is not new and has been incorporated in A.T.A.’s strategy since its inception as an independent organization (2011).
On the global front, there are more cases showing an extreme side of negative sentiment towards tourism. In destinations such as Mallorca and Barcelona locals have staged protests against visitors, while a Japanese town overlooking Mount Fuji installed view-blocking barriers, as a counter reaction to the town’s huge popularity on social media platforms. The US national parks are extremely full, and Venice has started charging day-trippers an entry fee. These developments show that the travel industry is changing how locals feel about visitors and there’s a growing demand for a more controlled management. According to Jeremy Sampson CEO of the Travel Foundation one avenue to “save tourism” is to have Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) switch from encouraging tourism to “balancing it”. Sampson believes that as DMOs grow stronger in their ability to balance tourism, things will change for the better.
As part of our continuous evolution in tourism management, the Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) is committed to this transition and aspires to move our destination to ultimately a more regenerative model, one that aims to create net positive effects through increasing the regenerative capacity of human societies and ecosystems.
The evolution and shift is depicted in A.T.A.’s Multi-Annual Corporate Strategy 2025-2035 (MACS), A.T.A.’s 4th business plan. The A.T.A. will embark on a journey of change, moving towards a more responsible, sustainable, and finally regenerative industry, where we no longer focus on ‘what can Aruba do for its visitors’ but rather on ‘what can Aruba do for its guests and what can our guests do for Aruba’. As such, we have identified six strategic shifts that outline our aspirations for the visitor economy by 2035. These strategic shifts entail an integrated destination management approach where we will seek to achieve a more balanced focus in the coordination and investments in destination management.
We will adopt a high-value visitor strategy, expanding our targeting strategy to also attract like-minded guests who value our responsible tourism mindset and are mindful hereof and who contribute to our economy, respect our culture and natural environment, and protect our destination brand. Behavioral change shall be promoted through education, amongst other, in different stages of the customer journey including pre-visit. Quite a shift in Aruba’s international brand positioning.
The Aruba Effect communication framework shall as such go through another round of evolution where we added a centering point, ‘protect it,’ a meaningful commitment to invest in work that protects the island, the wildlife, the culture, and the quality of life for the locals. It also is our internal rallying point to influence how we communicate with a range of audiences, from potential first-time visitors and repeaters, to on-island residents and businesses, and to on-island guests. Next to applying the right communication strategy at the ‘Feel it’, ‘Want it’ and ‘Get it’ stages, ‘Protect it’ shall be at the heart of what we do and shall influence how we communicate with each audience. On-island communication shall be enhanced to steer behavioral change amongst our guests and locals, in support of ‘Protecting’ our island. We will also embrace a segmentation approach, targeting specific segments aligned with our niche framework.
On the destination front, the Destination Services Unit (DSU) also recognizes the need to shift. As such, the unit has launched a new framework, along with five guiding principles, focusing on community engagement, sustainable coastal development, carrying capacity, regenerative tourism practices, and continued advocacy that will be at the center of all destination management efforts. Destination development efforts will be in support of ‘protection’ and ‘balance’. In this regard, our communication and destination development approaches will continue to be based on ‘research and data’. Updates to A.T.A.’s carrying capacity study, which includes another round of visitor sentiment survey, local sentiment survey, an overhaul of A.T.A.’s Tourism Impact Model capturing different scenarios, as well as key pieces of research including Niche Framework, Events Roadmap, Luxury Cruise Research, Culinary Roadmap, Brand tracking, Economic impact studies, and updates to our short term vacation rentals analyses, shall all be applied.
As for the A.T.A. organization and family, we are committed to prioritizing a people-centric and purpose-driven approach.
We are proud to take these steps and continue to spearhead innovative and responsible destination development to benefit the Aruban community and our guests.
In addition, to strategic shifts, we have outlined five important strategic pillars, our core priority areas, that will guide us towards our aspiration 2035. These crucial pillars are derived from the High-Value, Low-Impact (HVLI) Tourism Model and are seen as the evolution of the HVLI model, which has effectively guided our destination marketing and product development initiatives and projects in recent years. Recently CNBC Travel (August 20, 2024) shared insights about Americans’ decreasing spend on travel highlighting “Travelers may have finally had enough. With revenge travel over and pandemic savings depleted, travelers say they’re planning fewer trips this summer, or skipping their vacations altogether. “After two straight years of strong gains, the number of Americans planning to take leisure trips is taking a dip,” states a summer travel report from Deloitte Insights. The close of the second-quarter earnings season showed that major companies such as Marriott, Hyatt, Wyndham, Airbnb and Expedia are expecting travel demand to weaken this year as well.
At the A.T.A. and across the industry we continue to be vigilant; the tourism sector is vulnerable! A.T.A.’s Corporate Plan & Budget for 2025 accounts for a stable stay -over visitor arrivals and continued growth in tourism receipts. Together with the referenced shifts, the task at hand for 2025 is huge and is evidently geared towards safeguarding the pillar of the economy, being our tourism industry, and its vital contribution to Aruba and our people’s livelihood.
For the A.T.A. it remains critical for there to be a shared responsibility to protect our tourism industry and its wellbeing. Aspiring and achieving “Un Aruba Dushi pa Biba ta Un Aruba Dushi pa Bishita” is a collective responsibility. We recognize that on the global front, there are more cases showing an extreme side of negative sentiment towards tourism. We are aware of the sentiment of our locals and of concerns expressed, which have served as a guiding principle in defining A.T.A.’s MACS 2025 -2035 as well as our Corporate Plan and Budget for 2025. Collectively we must never lose sight of what makes Aruba a ‘great vacation experience’; our friendliness and welcoming nature, amongst other, is to continue to shine. We trust it will as it is after all part of our DNA.
On behalf of the entire A.T.A. team, it is my pleasure to present the Corporate Plan & Budget for 2025. It is time we embark on a journey of change, of shifts, and the A.T.A. is committed to continue to collaborate and transform our sector together with our stakeholders. Our partnerships, a fundamental ingredient of our past success, will continue to be indispensable in our new responsible tourism model.
We are proud of the consistent and continued positive performance of our tourism sector. Aruba continues to be one of the top performers in the Caribbean region. The demand and price positioning are amongst the highest. While this is the case, our destination is at a crossroads. In this regard it is crucial to acknowledge a shift in sentiment towards tourism worldwide. Overtourism, the excessive negative impact of tourism on the host communities and natural environment is real, and in Aruba, we are not immune to this globally increasing wave of sentiment. In Aruba, our locals are very cognizant of the importance of tourism, this was again reconfirmed in another local sentiment survey. 68% of the population indicated to be happy with our tourism industry while for the hospitality sector 75% said to be happy with the industry. Locals did express concerns in several areas, however. Concerns include unpayable housing for locals, pressure on our infrastructure, lack of benefit that locals derive from tourismgenerated revenue, and damage to nature and the environment. It is no secret that the 90s destination development growth model does not apply today nor will it apply in the future. This realization is not new and has been incorporated in A.T.A.’s strategy since its inception as an independent organization (2011).
On the global front, there are more cases showing an extreme side of negative sentiment towards tourism. In destinations such as Mallorca and Barcelona locals have staged protests against visitors, while a Japanese town overlooking Mount Fuji installed view-blocking barriers, as a counter reaction to the town’s huge popularity on social media platforms. The US national parks are extremely full, and Venice has started charging day-trippers an entry fee. These developments show that the travel industry is changing how locals feel about visitors and there’s a growing demand for a more controlled management. According to Jeremy Sampson CEO of the Travel Foundation one avenue to “save tourism” is to have Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) switch from encouraging tourism to “balancing it”. Sampson believes that as DMOs grow stronger in their ability to balance tourism, things will change for the better.
As part of our continuous evolution in tourism management, the Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) is committed to this transition and aspires to move our destination to ultimately a more regenerative model, one that aims to create net positive effects through increasing the regenerative capacity of human societies and ecosystems.
The evolution and shift is depicted in A.T.A.’s Multi-Annual Corporate Strategy 2025-2035 (MACS), A.T.A.’s 4th business plan. The A.T.A. will embark on a journey of change, moving towards a more responsible, sustainable, and finally regenerative industry, where we no longer focus on ‘what can Aruba do for its visitors’ but rather on ‘what can Aruba do for its guests and what can our guests do for Aruba’. As such, we have identified six strategic shifts that outline our aspirations for the visitor economy by 2035. These strategic shifts entail an integrated destination management approach where we will seek to achieve a more balanced focus in the coordination and investments in destination management.
We will adopt a high-value visitor strategy, expanding our targeting strategy to also attract like-minded guests who value our responsible tourism mindset and are mindful hereof and who contribute to our economy, respect our culture and natural environment, and protect our destination brand. Behavioral change shall be promoted through education, amongst other, in different stages of the customer journey including pre-visit. Quite a shift in Aruba’s international brand positioning.
The Aruba Effect communication framework shall as such go through another round of evolution where we added a centering point, ‘protect it,’ a meaningful commitment to invest in work that protects the island, the wildlife, the culture, and the quality of life for the locals. It also is our internal rallying point to influence how we communicate with a range of audiences, from potential first-time visitors and repeaters, to on-island residents and businesses, and to on-island guests. Next to applying the right communication strategy at the ‘Feel it’, ‘Want it’ and ‘Get it’ stages, ‘Protect it’ shall be at the heart of what we do and shall influence how we communicate with each audience. On-island communication shall be enhanced to steer behavioral change amongst our guests and locals, in support of ‘Protecting’ our island. We will also embrace a segmentation approach, targeting specific segments aligned with our niche framework.
On the destination front, the Destination Services Unit (DSU) also recognizes the need to shift. As such, the unit has launched a new framework, along with five guiding principles, focusing on community engagement, sustainable coastal development, carrying capacity, regenerative tourism practices, and continued advocacy that will be at the center of all destination management efforts. Destination development efforts will be in support of ‘protection’ and ‘balance’. In this regard, our communication and destination development approaches will continue to be based on ‘research and data’. Updates to A.T.A.’s carrying capacity study, which includes another round of visitor sentiment survey, local sentiment survey, an overhaul of A.T.A.’s Tourism Impact Model capturing different scenarios, as well as key pieces of research including Niche Framework, Events Roadmap, Luxury Cruise Research, Culinary Roadmap, Brand tracking, Economic impact studies, and updates to our short term vacation rentals analyses, shall all be applied.
As for the A.T.A. organization and family, we are committed to prioritizing a people-centric and purpose-driven approach.
We are proud to take these steps and continue to spearhead innovative and responsible destination development to benefit the Aruban community and our guests.
In addition, to strategic shifts, we have outlined five important strategic pillars, our core priority areas, that will guide us towards our aspiration 2035. These crucial pillars are derived from the High-Value, Low-Impact (HVLI) Tourism Model and are seen as the evolution of the HVLI model, which has effectively guided our destination marketing and product development initiatives and projects in recent years. Recently CNBC Travel (August 20, 2024) shared insights about Americans’ decreasing spend on travel highlighting “Travelers may have finally had enough. With revenge travel over and pandemic savings depleted, travelers say they’re planning fewer trips this summer, or skipping their vacations altogether. “After two straight years of strong gains, the number of Americans planning to take leisure trips is taking a dip,” states a summer travel report from Deloitte Insights. The close of the second-quarter earnings season showed that major companies such as Marriott, Hyatt, Wyndham, Airbnb and Expedia are expecting travel demand to weaken this year as well.
At the A.T.A. and across the industry we continue to be vigilant; the tourism sector is vulnerable! A.T.A.’s Corporate Plan & Budget for 2025 accounts for a stable stay -over visitor arrivals and continued growth in tourism receipts. Together with the referenced shifts, the task at hand for 2025 is huge and is evidently geared towards safeguarding the pillar of the economy, being our tourism industry, and its vital contribution to Aruba and our people’s livelihood.
For the A.T.A. it remains critical for there to be a shared responsibility to protect our tourism industry and its wellbeing. Aspiring and achieving “Un Aruba Dushi pa Biba ta Un Aruba Dushi pa Bishita” is a collective responsibility. We recognize that on the global front, there are more cases showing an extreme side of negative sentiment towards tourism. We are aware of the sentiment of our locals and of concerns expressed, which have served as a guiding principle in defining A.T.A.’s MACS 2025 -2035 as well as our Corporate Plan and Budget for 2025. Collectively we must never lose sight of what makes Aruba a ‘great vacation experience’; our friendliness and welcoming nature, amongst other, is to continue to shine. We trust it will as it is after all part of our DNA.
On behalf of the entire A.T.A. team, it is my pleasure to present the Corporate Plan & Budget for 2025. It is time we embark on a journey of change, of shifts, and the A.T.A. is committed to continue to collaborate and transform our sector together with our stakeholders. Our partnerships, a fundamental ingredient of our past success, will continue to be indispensable in our new responsible tourism model.
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