WILLEMSTAD - World Tourism Day is commemorated every year on September 27 and its objective is to promote the importance of tourism and its social, cultural and economic value. The central theme this year is ‘Rethinking Tourism’, which means that we cannot go back to the old ways of working, but we need to stop and think on how to practice tourism and where we want to go with tourism. For the Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) this theme is extremely important. Together with other players in the tourism industry, we must reflect and determine how Curaçao wants to move forward with tourism in order to reap benefits for our community.
In his official message related to the theme of World Tourism Day 2022, Secretary General of UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili stated: “As the world opens up again, we must learn the lessons of the pandemic and the associated pause in international travel. In exposing weaknesses, the crisis showed us where we can build more resilience. And in exposing inequalities, it also showed us where we can deliver more fairness”.
‘Rethinking Tourism’ for Curaçao means among other things that we need to determine together how to tackle the challenges that are emerging for the tourism industry. Curaçao’s tourism is developing in the right direction. In the first 8 months of the year, our country registered more stayover tourists compared to the same period in 2019, which was before the pandemic. Another positive development is the expansion of the accommodation portfolio that we are currently experiencing in our country. All of this requires attention and innovation, mainly related to product development, human resources and transportation. Some examples are; we need to create more types of tourist attractions for the tourists who visit our country, we need workers on different levels to occupy positions that are opening up in the tourism sector, and we will also need to discuss the issue of expanding the number of licenses for taxis and tour busses. CTB will continue its conversations with partners in the public and private sectors, with the aim of reaching practical solutions to the benefit of the tourism industry.
