Aruba Tourism Travel Rates Increased in 2015

One happy Island just got even happier, as the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) just announced their reported total arrivals for 2015, showing an impressive increase within just the past year.

2014 was a record setting year for stay-over visitors, but 2015 managed to beat it by an additional 14.3 percent, totaling 1.22 million stay-over visitors. The growth included a 7.7 percent increase in tourists from the United States. and a 0.9 percent increase in arrivals from Canada. Other notable increases include travelers from Venezuela, United Kingdom, Argentina, Germany and Italy.

Aruba relies heavily on travel and tourism—more so than any other nation, relative to size, in the world. Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, CEO of ATA, credits their commitment to strategic and sharp digital marketing for their consistent rise in tourism, stating:

“The launch of our award-winning Happiness Builder, a content-rich planning experience on aruba.com where travelers can build and share a custom video itinerary from 100+ video vignettes, paired with airport and island-wide hotel/product renovations and our famous Aruban hospitality, all contributed to the continued success of our beautiful destination.”

With more tourist visits, came more spending in Aruba. Tourism receipts increased in Q1 by 7.2 percent, in Q2 by 3.1 percent and in Q3 by 0.4 percent, compared to the same time periods in 2014. Aruba is also one of the most revisited destinations in the Caribbean, with half of its visitors returning to the Island annually.

With this tourism increase, comes ample recognition for this happy Island. In 2015, it was recognized as the most decorated destination, the most digitally-savvy island in the Caribbean, and the most sustainable destination in the world. The most recent award Aruba has received was a highly coveted Platinum Adrian Awards for its “One Happy Selfie” advertising campaign.

For more information on Aruba tourism, visit their website.