In an effort to better understand the workings of the island's tourism industry, the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, AHATA, recently orchestrated a seminar at the Renaissance Conference Center, aptly titled Business Intelligence Workshop and the Year in Review.
The question of measuring success in the world of tourism was on the agenda as sciences was applied to asses and analyze Aruba's ability to attract a multitude of visitors, many of them repeats.
On the panel, a number of experts, representing the Aruba's Tourism Authority, ATA, the Central Bureau of Statistics, CBS, and the Central Bank, in addition to Aruba's PR firm from the USA, Fitzgerald & Co., and John Martin, Martin Consulting Group. Cornell University Associate Professor of Strategic Marketing Chekitan Dev., Ph.D, served as key note speaker and facilitator. The forum debated how leading destinations and travel companies measure success; what are today's tourism Mega-Trends, and how Aruba may profit from them. Chekitan devoted considerable time to the exploration of the 21st Century Tourist - Who she is, what she wants, how to win her over. Note the feminine use of the term. Women today make most family travel decisions besides representing more than 50% of business travel in the US. Jeff Lesker, the President of the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association and General Manager of the Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino reports the new guard at AHATA will be delivering many educational opportunities to members. "This is one of the ways," Lesker explains,” of demonstrating AHATA's value as an organization. We provide members with learning, enrichment and networking platforms."
"Prof. Chekitan," Lesker continues, "was masterful, engaging and charming and delivered 12 trends to watch, in great detail. The trends were categorized to unique tourist-segments, followed by hints how to capture them, especially the 21st century traveler, who is mostly of the female gender," Lesker concludes.
Also on the seminar program thought-provoking data painstakingly collected by the passionate Louisette Cristiaans of the CBS, and the much-informed Robert Henriquez of the Central Bank. Their pie-charts and statistical findings were truly enlightening and informative. Paul Gilberto of Fitzgerald & Co. outlined Aruba's advertising efforts in the media, while John Martin discussed direct marketing to specific travel groups.
"We are grateful," Lesker states," that 2004 was a banner year and that 2005 so far demonstrates sustainable growth, that's all terrific news for the island, and we are already looking forward to the next exciting seminar, the second in a series of four, focusing on 'Branding,' with writer and key note speaker Duane Knapp, also sponsored by AHATA with significant ATA support."
The seminar was attended by over 120 tourism professionals in addition to the Minister of Tourism and the a number of parliamentarians, AHATA's Jorge Pesquera & Dyanne Vis, ATA's Myrna Jansen.
