It’s hard to say precisely when the renaissance began.
It might have been in March, when Curacao became one of the first Caribbean destinations to remove its pre-testing requirements.
Or perhaps it was June, when the new Sandals Royal Curacao opened its doors as the brand’s first resort in the Dutch Caribbean.
What can’t be argued is that the island of Curacao is in the midst of a full-fledged tourism renaissance, welcoming record-breaking numbers of travelers.
And the island just hit another milestone, topping 400,000 visitor arrivals in the first 10 months of 2022.
That was yet another month in which the island topped its record highs from 2019, before the onset of the pandemic.
“The recovery of the pre-pandemic performance continues as we move towards the end of this year,” the Curacao Hotel and Tourism Association said in a statement.
But the biggest change, one that does happen to coincide with the arrival of Sandals, is a surge in travel from the United Sates.
For years, Curacao struggled mightily to attract American visitors — this summer, though, that started to change significantly, with record US visitation every month since the opening of the all-inclusive.
In October, for example, the island reported 9,166 American visitors – more than double the 4,040 Americans that came to destination in October 2019.
For the year, visits from the US and Canada are up by 171 percent compared to the first 10 months of 2019. That includes a rebound from Canada, now that Air Canada and WestJet have resumed flying to Curacao.
That’s not to stay that Europe is not still the island’s tourism stronghold, however, with European arrivals to Curacao seeing similar surges compared to the pre-pandemic era.
“Curaçao continues to see a great performance from its top three main markets; The Netherlands, United States of America and Colombia,” the Curacao Hotel and Tourism Association said.
If the next two months follow suit, Curacao tourism officials expect to see an all-time record for travelers in a calendar year, more than the previous high of 467,538 arrivals back in 2019.