Curacao's Efforts to Court U.S. Visitors Ready for Takeoff

JetBlue's launch of direct flights from New York to Curacao, announced Wednesday, will invigorate the Dutch Caribbean nation’s recent efforts to expand its U.S. visitor base, said Stanley Palm, the country's minister of economic development.

JetBlue’s non-stop service from New York to Curacao will launch on Dec. 2, 2014, making JetBlue the only airline offering non-stop flights between New York to Curacao.

“We have been working closely with the team at JetBlue to bring this flight to the island and are thrilled it has come to fruition,” said Palm, speaking at a New York media gathering Wednesday. He said Curacao, represented by the Curacao Tourist Board, is expanding its outreach to North American travelers.

“We have been drawing folks lately from the European and South American markets,” Palm said. “Now going forward we are going to be focusing a little more on the North American market.”

Despite its comparatively low profile among North Americans when compared with other Caribbean destinations, Curacao tourism has grown steadily in recent years, said Palm. The Caribbean Tourism Organization reports Curacao hosted 440,044 overnight visitors in 2013, a 4.9 percent increase over 2012. The country is also a strong player in cruise tourism, drawing 610,186 cruise ship visitors in 2013, a whopping 41.4 percent increase over 2012.

“The last 10 years the tourism numbers have more than doubled, so tourism has been very good to us,” Palm said. “But we are a very diversified economy that’s a bit different from the other countries in the region.

“Most of the islands depend solely on tourism. But for us, tourism accounts for 25 percent of our economy,” he said. “But it is growing steadily and that’s why this market is very important for us. We believe have a lot more opportunities and we can do a lot better than we’re doing right now.”

Source: Travel Pulse