WILLEMSTAD – January 20, 2021
December Visitor Arrivals 2020
The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is reporting 9,909 stayover visitors for the month of December, which was a disappointing way to end the year. Because of Covid-19 Curaçao introduced travel restrictions back in March 2020. The travel restrictions began to be lifted mid-June with the Dutch Caribbean islands followed by Europe on July 1. For the third quarter (July, August, September) we welcomed 8,195, 9,227 and 10,420 stayover arrivals, respectively. For the fourth quarter (October, November, December) we welcomed 13,556, 13,705 and 9,909 stayover arrivals, respectively. The disappointing numbers for December are directly related to a negative travel advice announced by the Dutch Government early in December, placing Curaçao to code orange. This development is also having a negative impact on future arrivals from the Netherlands.
For December, we welcomed 7,092 Dutch visitors, which is 61% less than December 2019. Out of Germany, we registered 306 visitors. Of these European visitors 35% stayed in resort hotels in December. This compares to 55% staying in previous months, which is another impact of the negative travel advice. On the other hand, we noticed a much higher average stay in December. European visitors spent almost four additional nights compared to December 2019. The average night spent was 13.6, while December 2019 we registered 10.0 nights.
With the lifting of travel restrictions for only four US states, combined with limited air service we welcomed 960 visitors out of the United States of America in December. The share of arrivals from the USA is 10%. One hundred and thirty seven visitors were welcomed out of Canada.
From the Caribbean region, we have welcomed 424 stayover visitors in December, primarily from the Dutch Kingdom islands.
Year to date: January through December 2020
For 2020, we have welcomed 174,871 stayover visitors reaching only 38% of the number of visitors registered in 2019. We look back at a strong start of 2020 where 62% of all stayover arrivals was welcomed in the first three months of the year. The majority of our visitors originated from Europe (64%); followed by North America where 19% share in arrivals was from the region. South America, Caribbean and the rest of the world registered 8%, 6% and 3% respectively.
“With Curaçao being designated to code orange by the Netherlands, we foresee challenging monthly arrivals from the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2021. We remain hopeful that the travel advice will change soon, so that we can once again welcome the Dutch visitors. Meanwhile CTB continues to promote Curaçao in its key markets, now that travel restrictions have been lifted for the rest of the world. The objective is to stimulate demand across all markets for the rest of the year”, commented CTB CEO, Paul Pennicook.
