Tourists are staying longer and spending more
WILLEMSTAD- November 26, 2022 – yesterday CHATA hosted the 4th membership meeting of 2021, powered by its member MCB, with the aim to inform all members on all recent developments in the sector. The well visited Membership Meeting was held at CHATA Member, Dreams Curaçao Resort, Spa & Casino, with ‘covid-proof’ set up as CHATA is still practicing the social distancing measures implemented by the Government.
To kick off the meeting, mrs. Seferina-Rojas, CHATA’s Managing Director, welcomed the members and introduced the speakers and agenda of the morning. Mrs. Seferina-Rojas talked about the Caribbean industry performance figures, indicating that Curaçao scored number 6 of the most visited islands and that occupancy figures are alike 2019 since July. This is clearly a sign of structure and seasonality. Furthermore, she shared figures of the average daily rate and revenue per available room, concluding that tourists are staying longer and spending more.
Mrs. Seferina-Rojas continued by giving an update on the restructuring of CTB and the transition to CTA for which CHATA is in continued conversation with the minister of economic development. She also talked about all advocacy efforts regarding QR measurements for tourists, a solution for vaccinated tourists without a QR Code and the effect of high-risk regulation with QR on the workforce. She also gave a brief update on the financial aid and elaborated on CHATA’s educational goals for 2022.
CHATA’s priority is on improving the image of the sector and the quality of our tourism product through professionalizing the industry employees. Furthermore, she elaborated on CHATA’s plans to restart training and education programs to overcome the difficulty of challenging vacancies in the industry. This last one, is one of CHATA’s main priorities.
After this, mrs. Seferina-Rojas passed the floor to the first guest speaker of the morning, mrs. Jeanette Bonet, in her role as representative of the board of directors of DMO, who shared the plans of DMO for our city. In October of 2020 DMO appointed a new board of directors and introduced various committees with the mission to revive the area and bring more people to Punda. The installed committees are among others: property owner committee, marketing and events, finances, parking, recruitment, office, infrastructure and Punda vibes. The aim is to attract more local residents to Punda and this way let the tourists experience our people’s warmth. They aim to do so, through beautification of the area and a special security program.
The third and final presentation was given by dr. Dino Daal and mrs. Brenda Benjamin in representation of CTB, where they presented the strategic tourism development plan for 2022-2026. According to the title of the presentation “Karga di tur kunuku ta yena Punda”, thus teamwork makes the dreamwork, the content of the presentation focused on collaboration to achieve the goals of the coming years. The goal of the strategy plan is to provide a framework and ethos for the effective and efficient allocation of resources towards an excellent experience of visitors while on Curaçao, focusing on sustainability, competitiveness, resilience, inclusion, integration, and continuity.
Finding of their marketing study concludes that what constitutes sustainable growth is the ability to maintain market share, the ability to continually add value and the ability to create socio-economic, environmental, and cultural benefits ultimately depends on competitiveness. Lastly, they presented the focus points for the new marketing plan which includes destination competitiveness index, partnership marketing, current market penetration, digital marketing audit, niche market development, expand research capabilities, plan for sustainable growth and branding. The difference with this plan compared to the previous ones is the fact that this plan will include a public-private committee to evaluate the progress on a quarterly basis. The new plan proposes a stretched collaboration between public and private sector, creating funds in a sustainable way under the future CTA structure.
After all the presentations, mrs. Seferina- Rojas introduced local poet, mrs. Myrurgia Mutueel, on stage who presented a poem to the membership, dedicated to the tourism sector. Finally, de Managing Director concluded the meeting thanking the members for their presence and wishing them a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year.
CHATA will continue to update its members on the recent developments and looks forward to working together with all parties to achieve our goals.
