Edison Briesen. Aruba’s Minister of Tourism and Transportation

Q: What did you talk about the CTO’s situation and current outlay?

A: We took issue with our stance as Tourism Ministers and Deputies because we must review the CTO from top to toe and from left to right to find out whether there’s room for a change. This is an organization that’s remained unchanged for years when it should be more resilient than what it is today.

One of the main ideas that came out of the meeting is the fact that we receive documents only when they’re just about to be discussed and this has triggered many comments on the part of Ministers and Deputies.

On the other hand, the most important issue we talked about is that Ministers are the ones who should lead the organization instead of the organization leading them. That was a key issue and we’ve reached an agreement this morning to both reshuffle and streamline the CTO with a view to turn it into an organization with a broader scope capable of engaging more intensely with the private sector. We ought to make a more aggressive move in the region.

Q: What other issues were on the meeting agenda?

A: We discussed on the joint marketing campaign forged between the CARICOM and the CTO’s member islands in which the private sector shelled out $8 million and the CTO chipped in $8 million, too, because they’ve noticed that particular issue was kind of bogged down. We also touched on the need to target the major markets more aggressively, and I mean the U.S. and Europe. We’ve underscored the fact that the dollar is quite weaker than the euro right now and that’s a reason to draw in more European tourists. Now the region is cheaper than in past years. The Canadian currency is also flexing its muscles and we’re seeing huge flows of Canadian tourists coming down to the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and I think this has a lot to do with the price tags they’re putting on the market.

Finally, we talked about cruises and the amount of money they’re going to fork over to market the Caribbean.

Q: What about the CTO top brass? Is it going to change or remain untouched?

A: In the short run, there’s a draft in place to change the structure. We agreed this morning to make a few changes, not only as far as the obligations of the member states are concerned, but also with respect to the organization’s responsibility to work in all CTO member states. In past years, we’d thought it was all the way around, that we Ministers were supposed to work for the CTO when indeed the CTO is the one to support all member states and the region’s Tourism Ministers. We now have the tail leading the head and that should change to make the CTO an organization that can move easily in the face of an ever-changing region.

Q: As to the euro, have you toyed with the possibility of using in the Caribbean?

A: No, we haven’t broached that subject because in the overseas countries, for instance, the euro is already an official currency. Guadeloupe is a case in point. In the case of Aruba, we’re waiting for the Central Bank to give us the green light to use euros, something that would make it easier for European travelers to use their own currency without changing it.

Q: Have you weighed the opening of new markets in Europe in order to get a more mottled kind of clientele?

A: Right now, we’ve got a new CTO Marketing Director in Europe. She’s huddling with all the members. Her next stop will be the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. She’s going to talk with our reps in Europe to figure out how we’re going to position Aruba within the Caribbean framework, how they can be a greater help to us and vice versa, just to encourage a wider flow of European tourists to Aruba and the Caribbean in general.

Q: What can you say about the prize awarded by the CTO to our managing editor for the article she wrote about Aruba?

A: It’s an honor for us to have such a magnificent piece written about Aruba, and especially for our fledgling Spain Office, that’s absolutely a great drive.

That’s a big push to the kind of work we’re doing in Europe and it opens a window of opportunity to further encourage those markets. We welcome with open arms those awards linked to tourism, something that the people of Aruba understands as very important.