While Minister of Tourism continues to hide
Tourism is faltering
DIARIO Aruba
12/30/2005

ORANJESTAD (AAN) – Aruba’s pillar of the economy, tourism, is not well placed and as aren’t its foundation as was the case 7 years ago, because in the last 4 years tourism has been going backwards.

Not even when the MEP government tried to let people believe that tourism has increased, the reality shows that hotels are not filling up anymore as they once were, and worse now in this season in which it’s increasingly clear that things do not bode well.

Cruise ship tourism has decreased and the quantity of passengers who have transited [through Aruba] has also dropped, while hotels which were once at 100% occupancy in high season, now painfully reach a 60% rate of occupancy.

While the Minister of tourism remains in hiding, same with the Attorney General who is hiding because of her mismanagement of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the situation in our economy in what relates to tourism is going backwards day after day.

Global influences such as what happened in Mexico, where in the area of Cancun, which is the center of tourism of Mexico and remained almost completely destroyed after a hurricane did not lead to more tourism for Aruba.

What happened in Europe where there where bombings in different countries and public disorder in France didn’t lead to more tourism for Aruba either.

A hurricane which destroyed many tourist areas in the US, such as New Orleans and neighbouring cities where the casino industry had largely flourished, didn’t lead to more tourists from the US to come to Aruba either.

All these are factors that indicate that the MEP government is undertaking a disastrous management in the area of tourism and they haven’t showed any intention of doing anything to save the Aruba’s pillar of the economy either.

The year 2006 will open with many difficulties where the government will increase taxes on a long list of product imports which people use, and also in the hotel sector and this will turn tourism even more expensive for those who want to visit Aruba and the consequence of the developments and negative effects for tourism will have even more impact in the year 2006.

Those who work directly in the tourism industry and also thousands of others who indirectly work with tourism have to take into account that next year something has to be done to rectify the situation otherwise the working class will find themselves in serious problems because it will get to a point where hotels and other companies who work in the tourist sector will have to take measures to lower expenses and will start sending workers home.

Tourism is faltering while a little group in the MEP government continues to fill their pockets and the last loan of 84 million will let them continue their party for some time, until the time that the elastic patience of the people breaks and the weight of the charge on the back of the people becomes too much to bear.