Considering the recovery trajectory in Aruba’s tourism, ATA continuously gathered with local and international associates. This week, as a part of a work flight to Europe, there was a meeting with two key partners in Europe; which was the airlines KLM & TUI.
Both conferences went in an extraordinarily positive form. For the conference with KLM, Director of KLM Holland, Bas Gerressen, Commercial Director of the Commercial Division of KLM Benelux, David Vinke, Product and Partnership Manager KLM, Marjolein Kesselaar, CEO of ATA, Ronella Croes, CMO of ATA, Sanju Luidens-Daryanani, Area Director Europe ATA, Tirso Tromp, and Sales and Marketing Manager Europe ATA, Jaap Ellis, were present.
For the conference with TUI, Group Account Manager Tourism Boards TUI, Frank Boersen, Director TUI Holland, Arjen Kers, Product Director Long Haul Markets & Airlines TUI, Rob Oostendorp, and ATA’s delegation were present.
Different themes were touched in these conferences, focusing on the recovery of the market, but also on the growing opportunities in the oncoming future, talking on the capacity of the air seat program for the rest of 2022. The Netherlands showed significant growth in 2021, surpassing the number of visitors received in 2019, also looking at the July to December period. The great result here is being carried by KLM & TUI as well.
Aruba closed 2019 with 8.3% of visitors coming from Europe. During the pandemic, many of Europe’s markets remained closed or had restrictions where their residents could or couldn’t travel. This was pushed next to Aruba’s markets to get results. It was also noted that the average of stays from Europe grew from 11.2 nights in 2019 to 12.7 in 2021, indicating the visitors for Europe are staying for longer.
The 3 principal European markets for Aruba are The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In 2021, 62.2% of European visitors arrived in Aruba with KLM, and 17.4% with TUI. From the 53,698 European visitors that came to Aruba in 2021, the majority of them (69.9%) hailed from The Netherlands. 65.6% of European visitors in 2021 visited us for the first time, thus there’s interest to know about the destination.
These indicators show that there’s potential for Aruba to continue growing in varying markets. For that reason, ATA always remained in close contact with airlines and other associates in the market to delineate strategies together to continue forward.
KLM indicated that they are content with Aruba’s development and will provide input for areal seat capacity. Also, they remained vigilant in close countries. TUI saw an increment of market shares for Aruba’s flights that integrates with other destinations (from 40% to 48%) and established that the flight seat capacity will be maintained for the remainder of this year.
