Prime Minister of Curaçao

capacity about 35 percent. So that has been a big gain for the shipyard. “We have several developments under the co- ordination of the Ports Authority in the downtown area.We have the second mega-pier in operation at the cruise terminal, and three other development projects; one of them is adjacent to the newme- ga-pier–a mixed-use development, including the transformation of our small baseball stadium, there, into a tourist attraction.Another is a small marina; and on the harbor side of the waterfront, a mixed- use development, including a hotel that we are facilitating with a private investor. “The Minister of Economic Development is lead- ing the development of a new harbor called Bullen- baai.At this moment, it is an oil terminal. But there, we have a natural deep sea harbor.We are ready, together with stakeholders, to develop a vision document,which is now being translated into a development plan, and we hope to do this with our strategic partner, the Port of Rotterdam. “The TourismMaster Plan is still in implementa- tion.To put it simply–we need to fill the planes and fill the hotels. But I do believe that we need to focus a little bit more on one of its objectives: to increase investment andmake it more attractive to invest.We need to increase the RevPAR,which is the revenue for the average room,tomake it more attractive to invest in additional rooms.To do that,I propose amore practical approach,whereby tourismpartners focus on the low-hanging fruit.We now have daily service – COPA from Panama, which opens up possibilities of attracting more tourism from the Latin Ameri- can market. But, the northeast of the U.S. still has PRIME MINISTER OF CURAÇAO a lot of room to grow.We have additional service coming at the end of the year with Jet Blue out of New York, which, I hope, we can expand from other airports. “The European market has been our staple factor for growth for the last decade or so. But, we do need to move to a more sophisticated tourist. Not that we don’t want the current tourism, of course we do. That has been wonderful for Bed and Breakfast, for apartments, and so on. But, if we want higher tourist spending from the Euro- pean market, we need tourists to stay in hotels; we need tourists who enjoy a more sophisticat- ed product like a culinary experience, festivals, and so on. I’m speaking of the Dutch market, the German market, and perhaps, where possible, Scandinavia and even down to the south–Spain or Italy. I think we can do a lot more from Europe and blend, as our heritage is, Caribbean, Europe- an, and Latin American flavors. I think that’s what makes Curaçao a little bit unique in the neigh- borhood. I want the blend of tourists to be more representative of this vision. “One of the things that I’m happy and proud about, and also a fan of, is the North Sea Jazz Festival, which is coming back in September with top-tier artists after an absence, last year. That has been a staple for us in what used to be a down month. The Festival will be back, and we hope, this time, to stay, because part of the Tourism Master Plan has also been to promote Curaçao as ‘The Stage of the Caribbean,’ where we have different festivals, and different cultural experiences throughout the year, again, attracting the blend of different nationalities coming and mingling with our multi-cultural society.” BVM: How do you communicate to your own citizens about some of the initiatives that you are hoping see come to fruition, in order to get popu-