The conference that was held on our island between September 18 and 21, culminated on Thursday evening with a special celebration at the Royal Aruba Aloe. The first Aruba Global Travel Conference brought together a total of 59 participants from the United States, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, to mention a few. Along with many other partners representing our Hotels also traveled to be present. A total of 70 were visitors for this conference.
It is for the first time that A.T.A. has combined the most key markets for our island, namely North America, Latin America and Europe in a single conference. Throughout the week, participants and partners from the world of tourism enjoyed productive exchanges. The program began on Monday evening with an opening ceremony, followed by key presentations on Tuesday mornings during the Global Travel Conference in which A.T.A. shared the anticipated results for 2023 and the primary strategies for 2024.
Among other things, attention was paid to the “Aruba Effect” – The promotion layer and international communication strategy for Aruba. It can be noted that the concepts presented received a positive impact among the guests. Attention was also put on High Value, Low Impact that includes quality of life of the resident, quality of the visitor experience, protection and conservation of our nature, and economic contributions to the tourism sector, internal and external forces such as security, increase of rooms, workforce, and Carrying Capacity. Along with this, we could count on a panel in the Niche market that included gastronomy, nature, and weddings.
The program continued with a Tourist Market (Marketplace) that was held on Wednesdays for the Latin American market, and Thursdays for the North American market. During this interactive event, participants met with local tourism executives. The Tourism Market was attended by more than 35 local partners, including hotels, tour companies and other tour operators. Each of these partners had space for 20 appointments a day with international executives, where they could explore business opportunities and establish sustainable relations.
Apart from the scheduled meetings, international guests could enjoy different experiences around our island. In this way, it was organized so that they had a good impression of the island and that they were well informed about the tourist product and future development.
The reaction for the first edition of the Aruba Global Travel Conference is extremely positive, both for local stakeholders and also for the international participants, which included several people visiting Aruba for the first time. A.T.A. is optimistic that this conference will serve as an important platform to help our island achieve stipulated goals, create new opportunities and thus enrich our tourism markets, thinking here about the diversification of our markets as well.
A.T.A. extends words of immense gratitude to the team who worked hard on this event and to all the local partners, including AHATA, who contributed to make this conference a great and successful one.
