Inbound tourism volume in Aruba 2001-2021

According to UNWTO data, Aruba registered around 807 million overnight visitor arrivals in 2021 – a growth of 119 percent after the hit of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Between 2010 and 2019, the total number of international tourist arrivals in the Caribbean constituent country of the Netherlands grew by around 36 percent, despite some fluctuations throughout that period.

The role of tourism on Aruba’s economy

By the end of the 2010s, the internal consumption of travel and tourism of Aruba, which includes the expenditures and revenues as well as the government spending on this sector, surpassed the two billion U.S. dollars mark. With it, the small Caribbean island has become the most tourism-dependent economy in the region, with this sector accounting directly and indirectly for more than 70 percent of Aruba’s GDP in 2019.

Where do Aruba’s international tourists come from?

Due to its closeness to the United States, Aruba, like several other Caribbean islands, has become an attractive destination for U.S. travelers. Throughout most of the past decade, more than 60 percent of foreign visitors in Aruba were from the North American country. In contrast, the influx of Venezuelan nationals arriving in Aruba —once the second-largest tourist group on the island— experienced significant declines since the mid-2010s. Meanwhile, Dutch visitors constitute just around four percent of Aruba’s international tourism volume.