Closer cooperation Aruba and Curaçao on cruise tourism

ORANJESTAD — Minister Otmar Oduber (AVP) of Tourism, Labor and Transport wants to cooperate with the Antillean Minister David Dick (PAR) of Tourism to arrange that Carnival Cruises will visit the two islands more frequently.

online casino

Oduber had been on Curaçao for a working visit last week, together with Alfonso Boekhoudt, director of Aruba Ports Authority (APA). They had spoken with Dick and Agustin Diaz, director of Curaçao Ports Authority (CPA). The meeting had been arranged on the initiative of the Aruban Minister and various matters had been brought up. However, the most important subject of discussion had regarded the return of Carnival Cruise Lines to Aruba and Curaçao. The American cruise shipping company had announced at the beginning of this month that their ship Carnival Miracle would be visiting the two islands eleven times during the period of October 2010 up to and including March 2011. In July of last year, the so-called Deep South-delegation consisting of representatives of the Aruban and Curaçao harbor authorities had originally been told that the ship would be mooring sixteen times. However, this number was eventually no longer possible, due to logistic reasons. Aruba Ports Authority is currently negotiating with Carnival to include Aruba in the itinerary of the cruise ship Carnival Miracle for the entire year, a so-called ‘year round calls’-agreement. This could mean an additional flow of 120 to 140 thousand cruise tourists to the island. Until now, Carnival Cruise Lines has not given a negative answer on the possibility for ‘year round calls’ to Aruba and Curaçao.

In May 2006, Carnival had decided to remove Aruba from their itinerary because of the high fuel costs. The ABC-Islands are located the furthest south of the islands visited by the cruise ship. Moreover, after five years, the company had wanted to renew their route. In spite of the fact that the cruise world is still not flourishing because of the high fuel prices, Carnival states that they want to visit the deep south of the Caribbean again, despite the economical crisis. The company has meanwhile cancelled all their cruises to Europe, and only wants to deploy all of their 22 ships in the Caribbean area. The eight-day voyage of the luxurious cruise ship Carnival Miracle starts and ends at Fort Lauderdale and sails to Gran Turk, Dominican Republic (La Romana), Aruba and Curaçao.