WILLEMSTAD – November 13, 2023 – The Curaçao Tourist Board (CTB) is reporting 466.834 stayover visitor arrivals in the first ten months of 2023, which is an additional 66.257 stayover visitors compared to the same period last year. The stayover arrivals registered in the first ten months of 2022 was 400.577. This is a year-to-date growth of 17%. With only two months left in 2023, CTB projects with great satisfaction that we will welcome a record-breaking number of stayover arrivals by the end of the year. In fact, the tourism board will soon welcome half a million stayover visitors in a couple of days. It will be the first time in history that Curaçao welcomes over half a million-stayover visitors in a single year.
The image below shows the monthly performance of 2023 compared to the monthly target and last year’s arrivals.
Stayover arrivals highlights in October 2023:
In overall Curaçao Tourist Board reports it greeted 47,812 stayover arrivals in October 2023, 6% more than 44,915 stayover arrivals received in October 2022. The top performing source countries in absolute number of arrivals are The Netherlands, United States of America, Colombia, Brazil, and Canada. Altogether these 5 countries share in arrivals are 76%.
The Netherlands and Europe: The primary source market experienced a downturn, recording 13% fewer stayover arrivals, with a total of 17,395 Dutch arrivals in October 2023. The source market fell short with 2,707 arrivals. Last year a total of 20,102 Dutch visitors were recorded in October. The performance of the European region fell by 13%.
United States of America Visitors: From the United States of America, the market continued to show a steady total of arrivals of 10,482 arrivals in October, a 14% growth compared to October 2022. Curaçao has welcomed a remarkable total of 115,254 arrivals in the first ten months of 2023. The share in arrivals out of USA is so far 25% in the first ten months of 2023. CTB anticipates this source market also to contribute to a spectacular record-breaking tourism year for Curaçao.
Colombia Visitors: Stayover arrivals out of Colombia grew recording 36%. In total 3,527 Colombians were welcomed in October 2023. So far, we have registered 29,587 Colombian visitors in Curaçao in the past ten months of this year. With two months remaining CTB counts on record-breaking number of arrivals out of the Colombian market. The share of arrivals out of the Latin American country is 6% in the past ten months.
Brazilian Visitors: A total of 2,923 Brazilian visitors are recorded in October, a 224% growth compared to October 2022, when 902 Brazilian visitors were registered. The once weekly direct service out of Belo Horizonte with Azul Airlines and other connecting options through Panama or Bogota, in combination with continued marketing efforts in Brazil continues to reap its fruits. Because of the high demand in arrivals, Azul announced to increase capacity to twice weekly starting October. CTB expects the source market to close the year with spectacular arrival numbers. The current year to date arrivals out of Brazil are 20,400 arrivals, a 146% growth compared to the same period last year.
Canada Visitors: The start of the high season out of the Canada started impressive. In total 2,183 Canadians were welcomed in October 2023, 43% more than the 1,530 Canadians registered in October 2022. Year-round Curacao had 3 weekly service with Air Canada out of Toronto. Now Curaçao is connected through Air Canada twice weekly from Montreal and there is additional service out of Toronto with WestJet. These supplementary services give great potential to further grow the Canadian market this winter season.
The images below show the performance of each region compared to last year, including the share of the total arrivals and the performance of the top 5 countries, including their top 3 states of residence of our visitors.
Accommodation type, average nights, and demographics:
Information gathered from the Immigration card shows that altogether visitors spent 7.9 nights on average in October. Fifty six percent of all the visitors stayed in resort hotels. Many of the visitors who travelled in October are between 25 and 44 years old (40%) and 45 and 64 years old (34%).
The images below illustrate the accommodation and demographics of the tourists who travelled to Curaçao in October 2023.
