WILLEMSTAD - "Two beautiful months do not make a summer", according to CASHA, the association of business owners in the tourism sector. The occupancy figures for August 2021 are close to the figures for August 2019, but the sector is far from being there.

The average occupancy at CASHA's properties is 64.4 percent in August 2021, an increase of 6.6 percent from July 2021. However, it is still 21 percent lower than the same month in 2019.

According to the Curacao Tourist Board (CTB), there were 30,852 overnight tourists in August, of which 22,770 were Europeans. A large part of them had already booked and paid in 2019: the so-called 'rebookers'. At some accommodations, this accounted for fifty percent of the occupancy in the past month. In other words: the accommodation is full, but it actually yields nothing. The same is about to happen in September and probably the rest of the year. The outlook for September and October is mixed.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the full recovery of the tourism sector will take about four years. In this case, recovery means 'back to pre-corona levels'.

Taking the situation into account, several business owners wonder why the government welcomes new companies with open arms and ignores existing ones.