arubabeaches.net

Earlier this month I’ve posted an extensive article on the State Of Caribbean Travel and recently I’ve come across an article at BBCCaribbean.com. The article [Caribbean tourism under threat] offers an interesting perspective on the medium term state of Caribbean tourism.

According to the article there are emerging markets that are closer to Europe and United States, where the Caribbean is heavily dependent upon, that offer the same traditional sun-sea-sand package and perhaps even cheaper.

Furthermore the article suggests that islands need to change the tourism focal point and search for other directions in order to cope with the expected transformations. It features examples of islands that are preparing for change such as Barbados, Belize and Jamaica. Indeed some islands seem to have taken a pro-active approach when it comes to the changes ahead. Then again BBC interviewed several island officials, many elected, where they expressed their desire for change instead of upcoming changes.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that changes are imminent. It is easy to launch a one-liner for the press, it is more difficult to actually realize the plans. The positive aspect of all this is that the islands are aware of the future and many of them seem to have started internal discussions looking towards the future.

Another threat for tourism is global warming. For this reason some European countries are planning on implementing fiscal measures to penalize airlines in order to bring down pollution. Reports suggest that the air industry is a minor contributor of pollution in comparison to general industrial production. For this reason aviation groups are crying foul against the governments which want to implement these measures and call it “ordinary” enrichment. If these penalties get the go-ahead some suggest the Caribbean might suffer heavily because of that.

Eagle Beach

There are several theories as to how the name of Eagle Beach came to be. The most popular explanation is that the word “eagle” was used by allied forces during WWII as a code word to refer to the location, which seems plausible. At a certain point during the war there was a contingency of about 4000 members of the United States Navy in Aruba to offer assistance in protecting the oil refinery. That refinery was in turn the biggest supplier of fuel for the allied forces within the Western Hemisphere according to reports.

In the present, Eagle Beach is considered to be among the most popular beaches in the Caribbean. It features a lot of space and tranquility. Enjoy above picture taken at Eagle Beach recently.

At the end of the nineties officials announced the start of an extensive reconstruction of Aruba’s airport, dubbed Beatrix 2000, named after Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. The project took about three years to finish.

When the project was delivered people were pleasantly amazed with the newest architectural beauty, it was a building unlike anything else in Aruba and perhaps the Caribbean. It looked sleek and modern and surely was an improvement from before.

Well, the airport was indeed an improvement. The biggest improvement was the added capacity. The airport now could handle much more people, especially on those busy Saturday afternoons. Furthermore now the larger aircrafts could offload passengers via the tunnels which are obviously much faster than old fashioned stairs.

It wasn’t all great however. Critics didn’t seem to like it, they said it was too sterile and dull, which was all true. When you walked into the place is felt like a hospital. There wasn’t anything to do. The departure terminal was fairly empty and the seats in the waiting area were made out off cheap plastic, which was uncomfortable. To make matters worse the airport was losing money and had substantial debts.

Over the last 3 years the situation has been steadily improving. The debt was refinanced, contracts has been renegotiated, operational cost went down, new road markers, automated parking, Caribbean landscaping, runway currently being expanded etc.

Latest improvement was last week’s opening of the new shopping area. It promises to bring variety to the existing shopping. Now you have something to do while waiting for when it’s time to board.

Let’s hope that the prices are not going to be excessively high. Then again, we all know how airports are, it’s going to be excessive.

Surely but slowly the 2007 Hurricane Season is coming to an end, officially November 30. When living in the Caribbean this is as an important fact just like it is in Florida and neighboring states. Despite the fact that Aruba might be less of a target in regards to the common paths of hurricanes, Aruba’s mere presence in the Caribbean makes us belong in the wide area of hurricanes.

Having said that hurricanes are very rare in Aruba, in fact it is so rare that many tourism organizations advertise that Aruba is without a doubt outside the hurricane area. I was wondering that myself a short while ago as hurricane Felix was breezing (it just rained a little, despite the “dramatic” pictures of 2 inches of floods downtown Oranjestad), north east off the coast. I’ve made my own investigation with data provided by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami. How common are hurricanes in Aruba? Please check it out.

Summary of 2007 hurricane season:

1. Subtropical storm Andrea | May
2. Tropical storm Barry | June
3. Tropical storm Chantal | July/August
4. Hurricane Dean | August
5. Tropical storm Erin | August
6. Hurricane Felix | August/September
7. Tropical storm Gabrielle | September
8. Tropical storm Humberto | September
9. Tropical storm Ingrid | September
10. Tropical depression Ten | September
11. Tropical storm Jerry | September
12. Tropical storm Karen | September
13. Hurricane Lorenzo | September
14. Tropical storm Melissa | September
15. Tropical depression Fifteen | October
16. Tropical storm Noel | October

Over the past few months I’ve covered many topics related to the central theme of this site which is the beach, but more specifically the structures surrounding the beaches such as resorts, timeshares and condos. The latter has been a hot topic of interest for many people visiting this site as the most used keywords to land onto this site are related to condos such as Oceania Residences, Acqua Condominium and Pearl Condominiums.

In several post I’ve questioned the lack of vision by this island’s officials to present a coherent plan on the direction they envision for this island’s economic growth and more importantly on the amount of condominiums they are going to allow to be build in the short term.

Condominium developments are in very early stages, additionally there are several projects in the pipeline, nonetheless the condominium industry in Aruba is still small. It is even smaller if you compare it to the timeshare industry.

Despite the fact that many of these condominium project were given permits that gained approval on the projects’ own merits, and not part of a master plan, I couldn’t imagine that current developers are eagerly waiting for others to enter the market the same way.

Years ago officials talked about introducing zoning legislation for the whole island and plans have been presented in draft by some experts but it never became law due to the complexity of it and perhaps the cost in relation to this new law.

In a previous post I’ve suggested that perhaps I could do a report on these condominium projects, however that is next to impossible for me as I do not have enough data or access to investigate. The best I can do is offer an analysis in general terms.

Together with the exploitation of the SSS (sun, sea and sand) in the early nineties, the importance of building timeshare resorts next to regular resorts was critical to Aruba’s success. Timeshare owners tend to visit their newly purchased property more frequently than regular resort guests. This helped Aruba to become a much repeated destination for vacationers in the Caribbean.

Timeshare resorts are indeed highly successful for Aruba’s tourism and very profitable for the resort owners and investors, perhaps too profitable according to some critics. A point of criticism for example is the lack of tax revenue of normal business activities by timeshare resorts. While many people believe that resorts are heavily taxed this is not quite correct. Fees that appear on the final hotel bill, such as AHATA-contribution, government-tax or room-tax (resorts can choose whatever wording in order to explain what the fees are in regards to), don’t flow back to the island’s national budget.

AHATA is Aruba’s hotel and tourism association where the majority of hotels, restaurants and tour operators are members off and are the beneficiary party to receive the AHATA-contribution. The majority of AHATA’s budget is spent on marketing for Aruba. The government-tax or room-tax flow back to Aruba’s Tourism Authority.

Another criticism on timeshare resorts is that the money trail sometimes doesn’t flow to or through Aruba with a purchase or sale of a timeshare unit. Payments are made elsewhere consequently millions of dollars in tax revenue are missed as a result. Unfortunately there isn’t an air tight fiscal legislation with teeth to stop these activities, unlike other countries.

Comparing condos with timeshares for the sake of comparing is not going to bring the result I’m looking for. The comparison is merely to illustrate the next “big” thing in Aruba’s tourism as I believe the two are completely different.

Condos tend to be smaller projects and seem to rely more on local contractors and financing. The intended clients for these condominiums are people with deeper pockets. A base timeshare unit might start around $9,000, while a base condominium starts around $120,000. Condo owners might have a longer stay on the island, perhaps three months, and are more likely to profit from it by renting it out or even selling it down the road.

We haven’t seen the last condominium rise just yet in Aruba, in fact expect to see more of these projects to rise in the coming months and years. To channel this demand in development and the even further urbanization of the island, competent authorities need to step up and come up with some rules, this will prevent confusion and unnecessary criticism. This way developers and investors know exactly where they stand as do the people. Aruba has a very open economy and accepts investors from all over the world and has to keep it that way, there is just need for some rules for the game.

Yesterday I found three deals with three major airlines in United States that fly to Aruba daily. I really didn’t have to look very hard to find them either. There are many more deals out there you just need to search with the major airlines or travel sites such as Orbitz.com, Hotels.com or Expedia.com.

To add on yesterday’s post I coincidently came across a great piece written by Lazy Man (he seems anything but lazy), who is someone that has just traveled to Aruba. He offers a couple of great tips on how to save money in Aruba. A quick recap of his post:

• Buy a timeshare (at least try to rent one)
• Take the bus to go around
• Rent a vehicle to go to places that are farther
• Go to the grocery store (IGA Ling & Sons is indeed Aruba’s best) instead of the hotel’s shop
• Go to a timeshare presentation to get some “free money” like he calls it

If you are a traveler to Aruba, I recommend his quick tips to save money.

It’s not a custom in Aruba but if it is in your country: Happy Thanksgiving.