Tourism

• The council of Ministers has approved the Strategic Tourism Destination Development Plan (STDDP) 2022 -2026 which emphasizes on the investments in marketing and promotion through innovations but also on investments in the quality of the tourism product. The Curacao Tourist Board (CTB) functions as a Destination Marketing and Management Organization (a DMMO) that is in charge of execution of this plan.

  The overacting objective of the Strategic Tourism Destination Development Plan (STDDP) is to outline broad strategies for the development of Curacao’s tourism product for 2022 to 2026.
  Strategic objectives:

  • To spearhead sustainable and integrated development projects in the tourism industry;
  • Guide the local community towards wealth creation by maximizing the tourism sector’s financial and economic contribution to the growth of Curaçao’s economy;
  • Provide the framework for the creation of unique, memorable and authentic experiences for visitors to Curaçao.

  Besides Marketing, promotion and airlift development, aspects such as the Human Resource Development in the hospitality sector, security, cleanliness, transportation and beautification of the tourism product are equally important.

  The increase of the tourism figures over the last 2 years puts a mayor pressure on our infrastructural capacity. That’s why studies and analyses on the carrying capacity of our tourism product has to be done for example of the traffic, transportation, beaches, restaurants and other tourist attractions. This will require more investment in tourism product for the development and maintenance of for example the current 8 most visited beaches but also making other beaches on other parts of the island also attractive for our visitors so we can handle the increase of the monthly amount of the tourists moving around on the island. The development of new tourism attractions such as our natural and underwater parks and other recreational areas such as Maripampoen, Zakitó/ Koredor and Caracasbaai to name a few is a necessity.

  Our Downtown (World Heritage Site) is one of the iconic places, “a must see”, in the tourism product of Curaçao. Especially for the cruise tourism, as the cruise megapier is in the vicinity of this area, the tourist should have the option to explore the flavors and colors of our tourist product by walking distance.

  Stimulating Cultural Experience Tourism is a way to connect the tourism sector with the community. This way the tourist can mingle with the local people and experience more of the cultural history, creativity and gastronomy of our island. This development is already happening in some neighborhoods like, Boca Samí, Otrabanda, certain areas of Banda Abou, Nieuw Nederland and Seru Fortuna. This is also a way for the local community to see the value of the tourism industry and to directly benefit from it. With these strategies they will have more ownership and a way to embrace and be part of the tourism.

  The quality aside from the diversification of the tourism product is our competitive advantage compare to other islands in the Caribbean. Enhancing quality standards and certification of different subsectors in tourism like for example the accommodation, the restaurants, diving and tourist guide is also part of our strategies.

Tourism is the biggest export sector of Curaçao. The main goal of our National Export Strategy (NES) is to increase the foreign direct investment (FDI’s) for our country. This has a positive outcome on our balance of payments and therefore also on the income stream of the Government. To continue to stimulate growth and to create more value within our tourism sector is also part of our export strategy.

Tourism is the number one economic pillar since the year 2019 with approximately 35% contribution to our GDP in the year 2022. Tourism has been an economic driver that has generated foreign exchange, has attracted million dollar investments and created jobs. The focus now is to maximize the impact of tourism on our social economic development by increasing the overall tourism expenditure and the Average Daily Rate (ADR) of our accommodations.

For a resilient, sustainable and even regenerative development of the tourism industry, it is necessary to continue to diversify our niche markets. Even more because of the paradigm shift in the travel industry we must focus on a broader reach of different types of high-end travelers. Examples of these niche segments are sport- and eco-tourism, MICE tourism, yachting tourism and the medical and wellness tourism. Many of these segments have shown strong growth but have the potential to grow further.

Tourism has shown us besides being a vulnerable sector to also be the sector to rebuild and recover rapidly. Even faster than we have projected. After the pandemic we have fully recovered by the year 2022 and are aiming to reach around 700.000 stayover tourists in 2024 and to come close to the 800.000 cruise tourists we had pre-Covid. This growth is based on an increase of airlift seats capacity of 20% in 2024 compared to 2023 and a projection of 300 cruise ships visiting our island this year. We acknowledge the worldwide trend of revenge tourism after the Covid pandemic but nonetheless our goal is to maintain the current growth and continue to grow it even further but in a sustainable way.

Curaçao is in the top 3 performing destinations in the Caribbean according to ForwardKeys Air Ticket Data 2023.

For the first quarter of 2024 the island achieved 35% growth in stayover visitor arrivals compared to the same period of 2023. The record of stayover tourists has been broken monthly by a performance of over the 60.000 stayover tourist every month.

Visitor arrivals projection (both stayover and cruise) continue to indicate a pervasive growth for 2024, 2025 and 2026.

For data and statistics visit https://www.curacaotouristboard.com/monthly-statistics/