Tourism is booming in Curaçao!

Curaçao’s Ministry of Economic Development announced that the tourism sector generated approximately 1.6 billion guilders for the island’s economy in the first nine months of 2019. Compared to the same period a year earlier, this is a growth of more than 7.8 percent. This is thanks in large part to stayover tourism.

Most of the stayover tourists who visited Curaçao came from the Netherlands, the United States, Colombia, Canada, Germany and Brazil. Together, these markets accounted for 77 percent of the total number of tourists that visited Curaçao between January and September, according to the Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB).

Additionally, Airbnb is also a growing and important component of Curaçao’s tourism industry. In early 2019 Curaçao and Airbnb renewed an agreement to promote the island as a leading tourism destination. In 2018, the average trip length of guests staying with Airbnb hosts in Curaçao was eight days, which was significantly longer than the average stay in other places throughout the Caribbean.

And the island’s Hato International Airport is also benefiting from the steady increase in tourism numbers, which is driving expanded service from the New York and Colombia markets and direct flights to Trinidad. This is a significant achievement as the airport also suffered a blow when InselAir ceased operations in February 2019. But now other operators, such as JetAir Caribbean, are working to fill that void.

Curaçao also experienced an increase in cruise tourism in 2019. Curaçao Ports Authority (CPA) indicated that the number of cruise ships calling at the port of Curaçao has increased by 2 percent. 203 cruise ships entered the port between January and September.

So things are certainly going in the right direction for Curaçao’s tourism industry!