WILLEMSTAD - “Most of us have already been sent home,” says a hotel employee at the bus station in Punda. The man is 65 years old and works at the Sunscape hotel in Curaçao. “We are now obliged to take our holidays, but I don't know if I still have work after that.”
The largest employer on the island, tourism, is currently almost paralyzed due to the coronavirus. According to Miles Mercera, director Curaçao Hospitality & Tourism Association (CHATA), the tourism sector accounts for about 11,000 to 15,000 jobs. Many of these jobs are at risk now that no new tourists are coming to the island.
TUI stops flying
The hotel sector is struggling. Hotels see the occupation decline every day. The last tourists are expected to have left the island this week. All hotels will then be forced to close their doors. Many tourists choose to fly back home earlier. Because despite KLM indicating that they will still fly back and forth in the near future, TUI has stopped flying to the ABC islands and Suriname on March 22.
“Due to restrictions in air traffic, we unfortunately had to decide to cancel our flights to and from the Netherlands,” said the spokesperson for TUI.
Passengers are now dependent on KLM flights. Many tourists therefore try to take a flight earlier so that they are guaranteed a seat.
Hotels are closing
Now that the occupancy is drastically declining and some hotels are already completely empty, one after the other announces that they will temporarily close their doors. Sunscape Hotel is currently handling the last guests and from next week the new Dreams hotel will also no longer have any rooms occupied. Hotel chain Lionstone provides about 900 jobs in Curaçao.
Hotel Kontiki has also made this decision. “We have decided to close our hotel (March 21),” says Terence van der Valk, owner of the Kontiki Resort. “The reason is that we are currently unable to give our guests the Kontiki experience we stand for.” The last guests in this hotel are transferred to another hotel. Kontiki provides 250 jobs.
“Unfortunately, we had to decide that employees with zero-hour contracts will no longer be called for work. Alternative activities are being sought for employees with a permanent contract.”
Van der Valk emphasizes that all employees will receive a decent salary at the end of March. But it seems inevitable that many people will no longer have an income from April. CHATA calls on everyone to not make drastic decisions about the personnel and the operation yet. The government will then present a plan to accommodate companies to alleviate the economic consequences of the corona crisis.
