ORANJESTAD - Almost 49,000 overnight tourists visited Aruba in the month of March. The Aruban tourism board announced this yesterday.

Of these, more than 43,000 tourists came from North America. The rest came from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean region. The hotels in Aruba had an average occupancy rate of 36.4 percent in March 2021.

That is about 40 percent of the occupancy in the peak year 2019 and 12 percent lower than a year ago.

For the coming months, however, Aruba expects a huge influx of American tourists. Many airlines fly back to Aruba from America.

Passengers are only allowed to the island with a negative PCR test.