During the first visit of Allure of the Seas to Aruba, ATA’s CEO Ronella Cross conjunctively with the Minister of Tourism Dangui Oduber gave the captain of the ship a painting of a typical Aruban home. This took place during a placard ceremony, which is a part of all inaugural cruise ship arrival.

A few of ATA’s team members formed part of the group that went aboard the cruise ship to attend the ceremony and later received a keepsake from the cruise ship. As an office of tourism, they were glad that they saw an inaugural arrival, and to be a part of it.

ATA would like to thank and congratulate the achievement for the Aruban community, as well as the Tourism ministry, Aruba Ports Authority, SEL Maduro & Sons as a representative of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and ATA’s department of cruise tourism.

Since 2011, the tourism office took over the responsibilities that regard cruise tourism as well, which fell under Aruba Cruise Authority previously. Together with key partners, including the Tourism ministry and APA, ATA inverts various key aspects for the development of cruise tourism. A part of the team is tasked with client service when tourists are in Aruba. Next to this is working on attracting and maintaining cruise partners. They are working together with various authorities to optimize the visitor experience when they arrive on our island.

During the period 2011 to 2019, cruise tourism showed an average growth of 5% annually.