January 08, 2007

A DAY OF MOURNING FOR ARUBA'S TOURISM



All I can say is I LOVE IT. Keep eatin' that crow...I'm surprised they haven't figured it out yet. WE WILL NOT RETREAT.


BOYCOTT ARUBA!!!



Carnival Destiny says goodbye to Aruba


ORANJESTAD – Cruise ship Carnival Destiny moored for the last time in the harbour of Aruba. Businessman RenĂ© Zaandam regrets the leaving of the cruise ship and organized a ‘mourning day’ as symbolic protest. He called on everybody in the tourist sector to wear a black T-shirt today. “It’s a very sad day for the economy”, said Zaandam.


In his point of view, Aruba loses an important source of income with the leaving of this big cruise ship. He is of the opinion that Tourism-minister, Edison Briesen (MEP) has dropped a big clanger by not doing anything to keep the Carnival Destiny for Aruba. “He knew already, since August of 2005, that the shipping company that owns this cruise ship was planning to stop calling in at the port of Aruba. He pretended in March of 2006 that he knew nothing and in June he said that he would do something. It didn’t help.”


Zaandam calculates the revenue that Aruba misses out on. “Cruise passengers on ships of the caliber of Carnival Destiny spend an average of one-hundred dollars when they are in Aruba. This cruise ship accommodates an average of 2000 passengers, which means a source of income of about 200.000 dollars per week years after years.”


According to Zaandam, the cruise ship company indicated that they can no longer call in at Aruba, due to the high fuel prices. It’s such a pity that the minister had done nothing to eliminate this argument. “Look at the recent development with Valero, for whom the government had fixed an exception so they can pay less bbo. Wasn’t that also possible with Carnival Destiny? The minister could have stipulated that big cruise ships with at least 2000 passengers that call in at Aruba every week, would have the advantage of lower fuel price.” This way, the minister could have procured that big ships with passengers that spend money, continue to call in at Aruba.


Aruba Ports Authority (APA) announced last year November that three new cruise ships will call in at Aruba in 2007. On Amigoe’s question whether these three ships will fill the gap left behind by Carnival Destiny, Zaandam reacted that it’s not the number of ships that is important, but the number of passengers and the amount of money they spend in Aruba. “The new cruise ships have Aruba as pick-up point. Thus their passengers fly to Aruba, arrive late in the afternoon, and leave port in the evening. “These passengers won’t spend money on excursions in Aruba, because they do not want to miss their flight. Besides the passenger on these cruises won’t have that much money to spend like the ones on Carnival Destiny.”


Zaandam stood in the harbour of Oranjestad, dressed in a black T-shirt (HA HA HA!!!). He had called on tour operators, bus drivers, taxi drivers, sales persons and owners of souvenir stores, members of shopkeepers’ association Mambo, and everybody that works in the tourist sector of Aruba to mourn the leaving of Carnival Destiny.


A symbolic action, he admits. “By introducing the bbo, this government made it clear that protesting means nothing. They still do what they want and are not concerned about the tourism receiving a blow. This is high season and yet there are days with no cruise ships in the harbour.”


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Without the big cruise ships calling the port, the Aruba Port Authority will have no money to keep the harbour water clean. The waste oils leaked from the cargo ships, and the garbage swept over the waters from the nearby landfills and incinerators are very toxic and unsightly to the tourists. That is a darkest day of the beginning of the destruction for Aruba. Aruba is blacken itself with a karma of self-inflicted wounds of corruptions, coverups, abuses of the Dutch Law, and denial of protection for Natalee. Aruba sponsors terrorism by supporting and releasing three well documented rape murder suspects of Joran van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe. The blanket accusations chargred at the Dutch Kingdom by the whole world around the globe are growing daily as the Natalee coverup saga continues in Aruba. Why would Rammstein insist that the Kingdom cannot bring the three suspect murderers into the Aruban courtroom for a trial? It is so obvious an international obstruction of justice against an American teenager. The Aruba harbor water stinks, that's why. Wear your black shirts and drown yourself. The abuses, misinformation, mistranslations, misinterpretations and plagierism of the Dutch Law are what makes the whole world angry at the Dutch Kingdom. The Dutch miniters and pimps enslave the prostitutes in Holland by the new bbo and new sex taxation on hourly basis minute by minute recorded by the cams installed by the VBS security companies in the hotel rooms.

Anonymous said...

The mother instinct of the House Speaker requested her commitee chairpersons to scrutinize all the Dutch transactions in the Iraq war involment due to the rumors of scandals of a Dutch oil company selling explosive chemicals to the terrorists in the Far East.

Anonymous said...

What morons, LOL. Now people should be aware that they may be snatched and sold into human trafficking, they are getting desperate now for the need of money. Anything goes now will be the new motto for Aruba! Snatch them, bag them, sell them. Mo money! I hope they all rot for what they have done to Natalee.

Anonymous said...

Are there any sane people left on this site with real comments, instead of this ridiculous ranting and raving of absolute crap?