March 22, 2006

DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL


This pompousness makes me want to vomit. Who do they think they are? Some invincible country that can do no wrong? Aruba, you are dealing with the United States. There are millions of pissed off people that want to see your country go down...don't forget about that when you lie to yourself about how you are still "one happy island".




ARUBA (20 Mar 2006) -- Widespread publicity about the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway may be having an impact on the number of American tourists visiting Aruba, (Don'tcha think???) but Massachusetts residents headed to the Caribbean island in record numbers last year. (So what? That's ONE state. We've got 50 here, you know.)



Officials at the Aruba Tourism Authority say arrivals from Massachusetts, the island's second largest US market behind New York, totaled more than 61,000 through the first 11 months of 2005, an increase of 12.5 percent over the same period in 2004.



Overall, however, arrivals from the United States were up less than 1 percent over the 11-month period, well off the pace of previous years.



Gina Lopez, a spokeswoman for the tourism authority, said travel numbers softened in the second half of the year because some hotels shut down for renovations, room prices rose dramatically, and many travelers crossed the Caribbean off their lists after the harsh hurricane season. (Excuses, excuses...Did the dog eat your homework, too?)



Lopez said the publicity over Holloway's unsolved disappearance ''may have had some impact," but she maintained it was minimal. ''The effect was mostly on Aruba's image rather than its tourism numbers," she said.



Still, Aruba is eager to put the negative publicity behind it. Officials say a record $230 million in public and private money is expected to be invested in the island's tourism economy this year.



Tourism represents 85 percent of Aruba's economy, Lopez said. Aruba is known as a fairly upscale, tourist-friendly place far enough south -- it is off the coast of Venezuela -- to miss the hurricanes that regularly sweep through the region. The island is popular with Americans looking for sun in an environment that is a little different from Florida but not strikingly so.



The intense poverty that characterizes some Caribbean islands is absent from Aruba, where the standard of living is relatively high and the unemployment rate relatively low.



After Holloway's disappearance last May and the ensuing media barrage, the island's image took a beating. The tourism industry saw the story as a serious threat and created a team of local officials that operates under the name Aruba Truth. (A joke...an outright mediocre PR move.) ''It's an incident of very great concern to everyone that has a stake in the tourism industry," said Carlos Aquino, director of Caribbean sales and marketing for InterContinental Hotels Corp., which operates a Holiday Inn on Aruba.



Holloway, 18, went to Aruba with other graduates of Mountain Brook High School near Birmingham, Ala. She was last seen at a tourist-oriented bar and grill at 1:30 a.m. on May 30. She never showed up for her departing flight later that day. No one has been charged in connection with Holloway's disappearance, and officials have stressed that the incident was an aberration for their peaceful island. (You've GOT to be kidding me...they are blaming Natalee for what Joran did to their peaceful island? Talk about abusing the victim...you people are so sad and pathetic.)



To offset the negative publicity (Thanks to Joran et al.) government and industry leaders are pushing ahead with a number of projects to ensure tourism growth. (But screw Natalee, right? Are you actually thinking that will go away soon?) In addition to hotel renovations and expansions and restaurant openings, Aruba is spending $34 million on airport improvements and planning to spend another $16 million to build a greenway park that will stretch from the airport to the end of the high-rise hotel corridor and involve relocating parts of the port facility.
(Aruba can spend all this money, but they can't solve this case We are obviously dealing with some really unintelligent and unconscionable people.)



Officials are also launching a training program called ''The Aruba Promise" for people involved in the tourism industry. (PUKE! I'm dry heaving...)



Lopez said the training is designed to make sure tourism workers are in sync with Aruba's tagline of ''One Happy Island." (Forget it...that slogan is LONG GONE...)
''We have to pay attention to the little details."


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spinning the comments any way you like, but the fact is that tourism is up from some places here in the states. I know that it is up in flights from Illinois.
Please try to understand that not all quotes are "spin". No one ever said that crime did not exist in Aruba. It just is low.
I have no fears about Aruba. I have been there 7 times, and am going back in March. It is a great island to visit. You simply cannot take one occurance and say that it is a island of high crime and corruption. Why do you think nothing much has ever been said before the Twitty girl went missing? Because it is overall a safe vacation destination. I feel a lot safer there than Jamaica or Mexico.

Anonymous said...

Yeak, the island is deserted. No more American tourists coming, they are so afraid to come there and becoming missing persons. The tourists dollars dried up, and the government has to let go the beach rangers. No rangers will water those poor palm trees, and they will wither and vanish under the shearing hot sun. Aruba is quick becoming a desert where a few desert donkeys will roam and gloat.

Anonymous said...

The beach story is an entire fabrication of lies by Joran for his proposal to Greta for love or possibly sex. There was an unrelated drug bust that night near that Mariott beach. The drug smugglers were chased by the nacortics agents on the speed boats. There was high tide water and strong wind, so the criminals ran their speed boat wind surfing right pastover the shoreline into a rocky trail on the hillside and fled on foot. The whole sandy beach was submerged under seawater in those few hours that night. Joran has to explain us how he and Natalee could walk in a foot deep water that night from Mariott hotel to Fisherman's Hut. There were bushes and boulders and rocks that they had to cross and jumping over for them to make that trip. Joran were saying they were holding hands, kissing each other and hugging one another all the way. Are you just kidding with Greta or just try to fool us all the American people and make us stupid enough to believe your damn lies once more?

Anonymous said...

Shame on you Massachusetts!I'm not surprised,but I am disgusted.I have spent the last several years,living&working in Boston.And I grew up in the suburbs of Boston,living among some of the wealthiest people in the Nation.These people tend to be rude,greedy,selfish.They also have accountants who help them hide money from the IRS,in offshore bank accounts.I have lived in several other states as well.And I find that in general,rich people are pretty much the same,where ever you go.It's just that Massachusetts,has so many,for such a small state.
As far as Aruba having a "low crime rate",how would anyone know?
It's not the criminals that you really have to fear in Aruba.It's the Aruba Government.Any country has criminals,but not every country,has a corrupt justice system.
And to all you people still going to Aruba.I hope that one day you find yourself in the same position,that Natalee's family is in.

Anonymous said...

Jamaica was hit by a hurricane and their tourist rates went through the roof. Round hill a pretty upscale area was booming

Anonymous said...

This information comes from aruban officials and aruba truth of that happy island in the sea...More BS jus piled higher and deeper and boy does it smell...I see they have plenty of money for damage control but complain that ALE budget is running low because of this so called "Aberration" on this peaceful and happy island...The aberration is a missing 18 year old US citizen who had the sad misfortune to be on your happy island and far worse to be protected by your so called law enforcement agency...these 10 months have been a cruel and inhumane story to follow...it is so obvious that this investigation has been a farce and total facade...Money!!! They are jus interested in Money...how much is a human life worth...I'm sure we agree there is no price tag on your children...but apparently aruba only cares about tourism which equals out to MONEY!! If your loved one ends up missing you will get lip service only and no clear results...But beyond that the person{s} who are responsible are still free on that happy island and jus waiting for things to chill out and when the heat is off they will go back to their old ways...the only aberration I see is "aruba,one happy island" What a load of horse crap that is!!!