WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) has released The Blue Wave Impact Report 2026. The report documents how Curaçao’s national football team carried the island’s name to audiences around the world, from World Cup qualification on 18 November 2025 through the group stage matches in June 2026. Curaçao was in the news worldwide, with coverage in media across North America, Latin America and Europe, with an estimated combined reach of 29.5 billion. Recently, CTB Managing Director Muryad de Bruin officially handed over the report to the Minister of Economic Development, Roderick Middelhof.
The team’s historic achievement brought international attention to Curaçao as a destination. In close collaboration with its partners, including regional PR agencies, media partners and the travel trade, and with its own in-market teams in North America, Latin America and Europe, CTB turned the excitement around the team into media coverage, events, digital visibility and paid campaigns that told the wider story of Curaçao: its people, its culture and its hospitality.
Minister Middelhof and Muryad de Bruin
Key highlights:
- 30,400 media placements across North America, Latin America and Europe, with an estimated combined reach of 29.5 billion. Reach measures total potential exposure, so the same person may be counted more than once.
- CTB Managing Director Muryad de Bruin gave interviews to several media outlets including KHOU-TV (Houston), FOX 29's Good Day Philadelphia, CW17 and 6ABC.
- Curacao.com recorded 3.75 million sessions and 83.5 million Google Search impressions. Traffic peaked on 14-15 June, after the Curaçao vs Germany match. That week, the “Where is Curaçao?” pages drew heavy traffic in English, Portuguese, German and French.
- Brazil alone produced 18,705 placements and accounted for 32.1% of all visits to curacao.com, more than any other country.
- The Blue Wave Village in Houston drew 1,200 fans on 14 June. BBC News, Bloomberg, NOS and the Houston Chronicle reported live from the Village while NBC Nightly News filmed a segment there.
- CTB hosted more than 15 press trips to Curaçao, including Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, Telemundo Deportes, Globo Esporte, ESPN Brasil, and two German TV documentaries (ARD and Galileo/ProSieben). These visits showed Curaçao’s culture, food and hospitality, not only its football.
- The team’s Guinness World Records recognition made headlines in Brazil.
- Mentions of Curaçao in AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini rose 10.6% during the tournament window.
The report concludes that the visibility gained is a foundation, not a finished outcome. CTB will build on the relationships formed with international media, the traffic patterns established on curacao.com, Curaçao’s growing presence in AI-driven search, and the trade partners and fans engaged at events. The full Blue Wave Impact Report 2026 is available at curacaotouristboard.com. Go to ‘Data & Stats’ and click on ‘Tourism Reports’.