Aruba is a member country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the Caribbean Sea's mid-south, about 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of Venezuela's Paraguaná peninsula. Tourism in Aruba has become more than just a source of income; it has also become a part of our collective identity. Many of the visitors come for the stunning alabaster beaches, but they stay because they felt like family when they left the island. It is self-evident that smaller countries consistently do worse when compared to the total number of visitors. Between 2008 and 2018, the percentage of tourists arriving from the United States was continuously greater than the percentage of tourists arriving from all other regions.
From top to bottom, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas are the most popular destinations. It's no surprise that Aruba is linked with tourism, with its beautiful weather, friendly hospitality, and spectacular beaches. Aruba had very few visitors in the 1920s. Around 200 yachts, motor vessels, and tankers were registered between 1924 and 1928, bringing American merchants and vacationers to the island. Since its inception in 1924, the Lago Oil Refinery has been the island of Aruba's primary source of employment. However, in the 1950s, many workers were laid off as a result of automation. A new industry was seeking to strengthen the economy, and the Dutch government offered tourism as the most viable option.
The high-rise section of Palm Beach and the low-rise area of Eagle Beach and Punta Brabo are the two primary areas where hotels may be found. The bulk of hotels in today's market are owned by foreigners, and the majority of them are worldwide names. Despite its increased hotel capacity, Aruba has one of the high-level resort residency rates in the Caribbean, with year-round occupancy rates of around 75 percent. Aruba's popularity has been continuous, thanks to its people's hospitality, high degree of safety, political stability, and success in many areas of liveliness like hobbies, evening life, shopping, and eating, in addition to the perfect combination of sun, sand, and sea.
To a variety of factors, the unemployment rate on the island fluctuates. For starters, the population is quite tiny, making it easier to adjust the figure every year. Second, the data presented is based on a yearly survey. Finally, the island is mainly reliant on tourism. Among the Caribbean Tourism Organization's locations, the island ranks sixth in terms of total stopover tourists.
Aruba Tourism Statistics
- In 2017, Aruba's GDP per capita (PPP) was projected at $37,500.
- The tourism figures for Aruba in 2018 were 2,029,000,000.00, up 9.38 percent from 2017.
- Aruba's tourism business is substantial and well-developed, with 1,082,000 tourists staying overnight on the island in 2018.
- Tourism and allied activities account for about 34% of the Aruban gross national product.
- The majority of tourists come from North America, accounting for 73.3 percent of the market, followed by Latin America (15.2%) and Europe (8.3%).
- The Netherlands accounted for 40,231 visitors (from America and Europe) in 2018.
- The tourism figures for Aruba in 2019 were 2,091,000,000.00, up 3.06 percent over 2018.
- Because a big portion of cruise passengers go ashore to visit Aruba, the cruise sector is a highly important pillar of tourism in Aruba and received 815,161 cruise travelers in 2018, with 334 cruise calls.
- Aruba's economy benefited by $102.8 million during the 2017 to 2018 cruise season.
- In absolute terms, Aruba ranked 69th in the world with a total of 2 million tourists in 2019.
- The outcome is a much more comparable image when the tourist numbers are compared to the population of Aruba: Aruba was ranked 5th in the world with 18.27 tourists per resident.
- It was ranked third in the Caribbean.
- Aruba spends $2,091,000,000 on tourism promotion in 2019, accounting for 81.63 percent of total exports.
- This shows an increase from 2018 with $2,029,000,000 spending for 79.34 percent of combined exports.
- The tourism industry alone brought in roughly 1.08 billion dollars to Aruba.
- This accounts for 33.63 percent of the country's GDP and almost 13 percent of all foreign travel receipts in the Caribbean.
- Aruba received roughly 1.95 million foreign visitors in 2019, according to UNWTO figures, the biggest amount since the mid-2000s.
- More than four out of ten of these arrivals were cruise passengers arriving on the same day.
- Despite minor fluctuations, the overall figures of domestic tourist arrivals in the Caribbean constituent country of the Netherlands increased by roughly 40% between 2010 and 2019.
- Travelers from the United States accounted for 69 percent of visitors to Aruba in 2018, while tourists from Brazil accounted for only 1.5 percent.
- This annual tourism report depicts the distribution of Aruba's population by age group in 2020 and reveals that 9,156 persons were between the ages of 55 and 59, while 5,459 were between the ages of zero and four in 2020.
- Aruba's unemployment rate jumped from 5.2 percent in 2019 to 12.5% in 2020.
- From 2008 to 2018, the total number of domestic travelers (in thousands) to Aruba increased by nearly 300,000.
- In 2008, Aruba received little over 770,000 tourists, but by 2018, that number had risen to almost one million.
- Aruba's inbound tourist arrivals peaked in 2015, with around 1.2 million visitors.
- From 2008 to 2018, this statistic shows the total number of nights travelers stayed in Aruba (in thousands) peaked in 2015 at 8.3 million.
- Tourists stayed in Aruba for fewer nights in subsequent years around 8.1 million nights in 2018.
- According to the Aruba Tourism Board, Aruba receives almost two million hotel and cruise visitors each year.
- Aruba hotels attract roughly twice as many visitors as cruise ships.
- December is the busiest month for Aruba visitors, with over 100,000 visits, followed by August, November, and July.
- With 78,000 visitors, May is the least popular month, followed by February and June.
- Aruba is the most popular tourist destination in the United States, with over 500,000 visitors.
- Visitors from entire Europe contribute 80,000 visits, Canadians for 44,000, and "Other" for 371,000.
- According to the World Bank's collection of development indicators derived from officially recognized sources, the number of international tourists arriving in Aruba in 2019 was reported as 1951000.
- After the COVID-19 pandemic period, the total number of stopover visitors in 2021 was 150,860 which is 88.2% of total visitors going to the USA.
- In 2021 about 41.3% (70,662) of tourists prefer to stay in hotels, with timeshare of 36.2% (61,952) and other accommodations of 22.5% (38,498).
- The majority of the tourists who travel to Aruba in age groups 30 to 39 years were 30,951 (18.1%) in 2021.
- Up till April 2022, these figures are observed to increase by 270,061, with a visitor percentage of 80.5% showing a positive impact on the tourism sector.
- This defines the change in traveling stopover percentage of 79.0% with the highest number of tourists observed in April (101,696) from 2021 to April 2022.
- Outbound travelers leaving Aruba, including tourists returning home and Arubans embarking on travels abroad, observed 103,758 (UK), 901 (Canada), 10,671 (Europe), 8,299 (Latin America), and 4,457 (Dutch Caribbean) are revenue-generating passengers of 2021.
- The total number of available air traveling seats was 1,701,062 (2019), 721,032 (2020), and 1,348,399 (2021) showing a fall in air travel seats in the year 2020 (the year of covid-19 out broken).
