Almost 15 percent less tourists in the first quarter
ARUBA – In the monthly bulletin of April that the Central Bank of Aruba (CBA) published recently is stated that in the first quarter of 2006, 14.7 percent less tourists visited Aruba than in 2005.
CBA does not have recent figures on the amount of money the tourists have spent. The last figures that Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) had published were in January of 2005. When CBA published her April bulletin, ATA didn’t have the figures on arriving tourists and the number of staying over tourists for February, March and April yet.
The data in the financial bulletin of April came from the Immigration administration and the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The Bank concluded that the number of tourists as well as the room occupancy in the hotels had dropped. The number of cruise tourists in April of 2006 had dropped with 12.9 percent compared to same month last year and 17.1 percent less cruise ships had called on the port of Aruba. The number of tourists that came to Aruba via air dropped with 14.7 percent. This percentage is the result of the difference between the first quarter of 2006 and the same period in 2005. The Bank indicated further that the average room occupancy in hotels dropped to 81.3 percent compared with April of 2005.
As part of financial developments, the Bank reported an increase of money of 32 million florins to an amount of 2474.1 million florins. The increase is attributed to an increase of the number of loans by businesses and mortgages of 1.4 percent (13.6 million florins). Consumer credits decreased with 0.2 percent, which is equal to more or less 1 million florins.
http://www.amigoe.com/english/
It's amazing to me that these people will let the island's economy and people suffer this much because of one (or three) kids. This is the best indication to me that there is something much bigger than the Van Der Sloots and Kalpoes going on. Why are they allowing this to happen? Who is really letting this happen?
There is some interesting stuff on the SM Front Page comments section for the Aruba Toursim story. Read the posts made by Grande.
http://www.scaredmonkeys.com/2006/07/05/aruban-tourism-down-again-what-will-it-take-to-wake-these-people-up-what-are-they-hiding/#comments