Update Country Report Curaçao 08 Jul 2019

Event

According to the Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB), overall tourist arrivals to Curaçao in the first four months of 2019 rose by 17% year on year, indicating that the island is succeeding in efforts to market itself as an attractive Caribbean destination.

Analysis

The surge in arrivals is a welcome development for the island nation, which is struggling to return to growth after three consecutive years of contraction. There were 127,156 stopover arrivals between January and April, while cruise-ship arrivals totalled 278,205 (growing by 6% year on year) in the same period. Although Europe-in particular the Netherlands-remains the country's main source market for tourism, arrivals from North America have accelerated. This is helping to compensate for a slowdown in arrivals from nearby Venezuela, where an economic crisis has depressed Venezuelan tourism to Curaçao.

In the first four months of the year, arrivals from the US totalled 42,000, representing a year-on-year increase of 21%. The rise in tourism inflows from the US reflects a shift in the country's marketing strategy, as Curaçao is increasingly promoting itself as a Caribbean destination for US tourists, competing with traditional US destination markets such as the Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands, as well as Puerto Rico.

The positive data will be well received by the government and the tourist board, which in 2018 initiated a five-year plan to boost tourism arrivals. In part, this aimed to launch a broad-based marketing campaign highlighting Curaçao's attractions and also the island's extensive flight connections. To some extent, Curaçao has benefited from the extensive hurricane damage suffered by another Antillean island, Sint Maarten, which may have encouraged tourists-particularly from Europe-to visit Curaçao instead.

Impact on the forecast

Our forecast is unchanged as a robust pick-up in tourism is already incorporated into our projection of a marginal economic recovery in 2019. With several hotels and resorts set to open in the coming months, a further boost can be expected in the fourth quarter and into 2020. This should partly offset downturns in other sectors, notably manufacturing, which remains in the doldrums owing to ongoing problems at the Isla oil refinery.