Written by Randall Lacle – M.A. Destination Tourism Management, 2× B.Sc. Hospitality and Tourism Management

The Draft Tourism Policy 2026–2031 makes the correct strategic diagnosis: when visitor arrivals grow faster than real tourism income, the destination absorbs the hidden cost as congestion, housing pressure, infrastructure load, and marine ecosystem stress—classic indicators of a mature destination drifting toward overtourism if not properly managed (UNWTO, 2018; Capocchi et al., 2019).

The policy’s Proportional Rule requiring at least +2% real receipts for every +1% in arrivals, introduces the value discipline characteristic of progressive, maturing destinations. Comparable “value over volume” approaches now guide national tourism strategies in countries such as New Zealand, which has formally shifted its priorities toward increasing yield, reducing seasonality, and ensuring regenerative outcomes that protect social license and infrastructure capacity (Tourism New Zealand, 2023; MBIE, 2022).

Yet while policy defines the desired trajectory, governance determines the lived reality. Globally, destination managers increasingly rely on condition‑based management frameworks rather than volume-based metrics alone. Two of the most influential are:

On beaches, social carrying capacity is as important as physical capacity: perceived quality declines once “people at once” (PAO) exceed locally acceptable norms. Tools such as the Beach Crowding Index and PAO spatial heat‑mapping support anticipatory management, triggering dispersion to less crowded areas or times before frustration and conflict arise (Serrano-Giné et al., 2018; da Silva, 2002). This is especially relevant for Aruba during peak cruise days.

Because beaches and reefs are shared commons, governance durability depends on co‑creation. Ostrom’s foundational work demonstrates that shared natural resources are most effectively sustained when users participate in rule‑setting, monitoring is local, and sanctions are graduated, typically following an “advise → warn → cite” progression (Ostrom, 1990). This is precisely the institutional logic underpinning a co‑managed beach code that residents and operators perceive as legitimate.

The same evidence base explains why resident well‑being and social license must be central to governance. Decades of research show community support increases when tourism benefits are viewed as equitable and costs such as crowding, noise, and housing stress are managed transparently; it falls when these conditions deteriorate (Hadinejad et al., 2019; Matatolu, 2019). Hence the importance of public dashboards, predictable enforcement, and community-responsive planning.

At sea, temporal recovery measures require careful design. Research on rotational closures shows they can enhance coral resilience when closure periods are sufficiently long and sequenced appropriately, whereas overly short rotations underperform (Rassweiler & Wall, 2024). Case studies such as Waikīkī demonstrate similar patterns (Williams et al., 2006). Aruba’s proposed Ocean Rest Day, built around monitoring and curated inland alternatives, aligns with this evidence.

Regarding cruise yield, regional benchmarks are clear: average Caribbean passenger spending typically ranges between US$100–$130 depending on year and vessel mix (FCCA/BREA, 2018, 2024). Pursuing volume without yield compresses public space and elevates friction. Achieving higher targets, e.g., US$150 real spend per passenger, requires curated experiences, spatial dispersion (e.g., toward San Nicolas, or other Burroughs), and leakage reduction rather than additional ship calls.

In essence, the White Paper sets the compass, and Destination Stewardship provides the steering. The Proportional Rule preserves economic value; the LAC/VUM logic preserves environmental and social legitimacy. Combined, they position Aruba to demonstrate how a mature island destination can improve daily life while safeguarding the very assets that sustain resilience: reefs, beaches, neighborhoods, and culture (UNWTO, 2018; Stankey et al., 1985; Interagency Visitor Use Management Council, 2016).

References

Upscale Emporium at the Palm Beach Plaza

For an hour of escape, step into the Upscale Emporium and the Little Rose Boutique across the courtyard and let your eyes travel across Europe and the Far East, at two new shopping destination in the mall.

That mall was destined for greatness but never achieved synergy with tenants coming and going.

At present, it is a real estate and nail salon stronghold, also two new and interesting stores, the Upscale Emporium and Little Rose, both filled with unique European vintage antiques and bric-a-brac.

Upstyle Emporium Aruba, is owned by a beautiful now retired lawyer with Aruban roots, Yvonne Rosina. Yvonn is an elegant curator of curiosities with an international sense of style, and she collected furniture, armoires, tables, chairs, statuesque, painting, decorative art, chandeliers, silverware, pewter dishes, ivory, bronze, porcelain, some retro jewelry, and lots of interesting knickknacks from around the globe, to the Palm Beach Plaza.

You may find some big and medium ticket items at Upscale Emporium and some reasonably priced surprises at Little Rose Aruba.

As Nancy Ninaber closed the Rococo Plaza, and sold the real estate, in September 2025, after 30 years of running the antique shop and flea market, Yvonne took up the baton, in January 2026, and opened two outlets at the space vacated by Shivas Gold & Gems at the mall.

Yvonne has been setting up the business for the past months and welcoming customers, she also has a collaboration going on with @drunksdenial, creating an upscale, yet inviting look for the business and brand, @Rutenasuitesaruba.

For antiques, vintage objects, and decorative art, head to Palm Beach Plaza. You may connect via WhatsApp: +31610791946

The Sale of the Century

We have known for a while that Artistic Boutique is closing. How many of you made their way to the store to see what is offered? Make it your business to stop by there — vale la pena!

Owner Padma Mahtani reports just two more weeks, before the boutique closes its doors permanently.

Artistic Boutique opened on the main street in November 1969. At the time Aruba positioned itself as a shopping paradise, a duty-free island with swanky casinos and great beaches.

Shopping and Gaming were two important tourism drivers and Artistic Boutique did its share in making the island famous, alongside Palais Oriental, with Peter Daryanani, Padma’s brother.

Artistic Boutique was managed since opening day by Padma, which makes it one of the oldest retail boutiques on the island, and in its hay days it specialized in hand embroidered table linens, place mats, runners, pillowcases, jewelry with semi-precious stones, not-that-expensive figurines, such as Nao by LLadro, and reasonably priced watches. But Padma reports that at the beginning they sold baubles, tchotchkes, small souvenirs from the far east, shoppers were much less sophisticated than today.

Padma who was born in Yokohama, Japan and raised in India, must be the world’s best salesperson – how else would you explain such amazing staying power?

She is also the matriarch of one of Aruba’s well to do Indian-Aruban merchant families, and she is especially proud of her successful children.

Padma got married after a 10-day introduction, but we were destined to each other, she explains, together with her late husband they raised a beautiful family and actively managed a string of businesses, as some of the most prominent business leaders on the island.

Padma is planning to author a book in retirement, she has a lot of stories to tell.

Anyway, go shopping, get all your Easter gifts for a huge discount.

The public was invited on Sunday to tour SABA the home caring for the island’s elderl

SABA runs three locations, in San Nicolas, Savaneta, at the old Marie Stella convent, and in Oranjestad in the old San Pedro Hospital, with a capacity for 207 elderly, attended by 270 caretakers.

I signed up for the tour at the open house, and showed up, to be greeted by Sulima Geerman, Director of SABA.

Sulima comes from the hospital, and is used to a sanitized, controlled, well-equipped, modern environment, but at SABA, she said, she had to let go many of her requirements, and do her best under the circumstances, asking her team to deliver above and beyond, because of the antiquated facility, and the immense task of keeping 80.000 square meters in top functioning condition.

The buildings, a series of long dorms-like barracks, with large patches of ground in between, was built in the 1920s, and run as a hospital by the Dominican sisters. In 1977 it was abandoned, as Aruba received a new modern hospital, Dr. Horacio Oduber. Between 1977 and 1995 the facility housed government offices, parts were left unused and invaded by homeless, parts served as a school.

Then the government-owned San Pedro of Verona complex was handed over the SABA as an elderly care facility, and immediately placed on the backburner, labeled ‘good enough’ with years of neglect and slashed budgets, following years of shoestring renovations.

Sulima took us on a tour. A full wing of the facility is closed. It can no longer serve as a dorm, and Sulima hopes that perhaps under the new government some funds will be allocated to renovate it. She would like to grant the elderly privacy and they are accommodated as they wish, one per room, or sometimes family members ask to live together.

In the past families were asked to finance the installation of air conditioning in the rooms, today Sulima refuses to burden families, and tries to find the money in her budget.

The central kitchen employs 12 people. They cook for all three facilities. Then meals are packed and delivered from Oranjestad to the Savaneta and St Nicolas homes.

Breakfasts, snacks, and evening meals are provided by small kitchens in each of the facility’s wings. While food is always available Sulima explains they must keep the elderly on a healthy diet, and watch their weight, and all other health indicators, by serving balanced nutrition.

To the occasional volunteers who wish to cater a meal of organize a party, she explains the elderly do not need rich foods and sugary treats, they are happy with a domino tournament, some entertainment, a visiting barber, manicurist, or hairdresser!

The SABA central laundry also operates under Sulima’s watchful eye. It washes all linens and clothes, for the three facilities, and keeps track of personal items, by carefully labeling everything.

Imagine having to launder 207 bed sheet sets!

The machinery is expensive Sulima explains, and when something breaks, it is the end of the world, replacement parts are hard to find.

The complex grounds are neat, and visibly picked up, the old tile floors spotless, but the complex is blessed or plagued by doves, who are hard to convince to go live elsewhere.

We saw some hens with their chicks in the yard. Sulima laughs because the elderly feed the birds, and while from a hospital perspective it is a no-no, at the elderly home, the hen followed by her chicks make the residents happy.

In the past, residents with dementia or Alzheimer were house in a separate wing. Today, the dorms are in mixed use, because people help each other, those who can and those who cannot complement each other.

At the end of the tour at the pavilion we saw an exercise class, a colorful beach ball tossed back and forth to a circle of residents, some in wheelchairs.

I left thinking SABA employs miracle workers, such dedication and professionalism.

“Caring Beyond Care means creating a true sense of home for every resident we serve. By opening our doors, we show proudly what ‘Hunto mas fuerte’ truly looks like in action,” states Sulima.

She reports she filled many dumpsters when she first arrived at SABA, and tossed out all the horded broken equipment, accumulating over generation.

SABA is like a neglected child, she says, hiding its face because of low self-esteem. BUT… we no longer want to be that child, we are proud of our work and accomplishments, and demand to be included and recognized. We are not a stepchild, and this is not good enough, she adds, the elderly deserve respect and quality care.

I agreed.

SABA enjoys a partnership for prevention with Fundacion ABO, in honor of International Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. As part of the CORESA program, the Open House featured a dedicated station where visitors could learn about the FIT-test, a simple, private screening test that starts at home.

About SABA Aruba:

SABA is the cornerstone of elderly care in Aruba, dedicated to providing a dignified and comfortable care for the island’s elderly.

At IMAGEN, 3D colorful photographic tableaux of Aruba are compressed into linear historically correct timelines. That is what digital artist Fernando Vermeer presents, as he manipulates photographs and turns them into rich tapestries of cultural references — 100 years of urban history, contained in just one frame.

The exhibition “Art – Imagination – Expression,” opened last weekend at Cas Di Cultura and will remain open to the public until April 14th.

Fernando is a digital magician, and I still have at home a picture of me, glamorized as Fernando first introduced photoshop, retouching and editing, the way we understand it today.

At the time it was like magic, how he erased the wrinkles from the corner of my eyes and stretched out my forehead to reflect youthful intelligence.

The digital retouching, and the ability to change visuals and edit reality is what shaped Fernando as a storytelling artist. He grew up between a crusader-activist mother, MARJORY, and a professional photographer-to-the-stars father, Rob. That gave him the keen eyes, and the powers of observation.

In his work he blends contemporary photography, historical imagery, and computer power, to create layered compositions that reflect culture, memory, and the evolution taking place under our noses.

As a young man a selection of Fernando’s drawings and paintings attracted the attention of Elvis Lopez and he mailed it, yes, by post, to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, one of the Netherlands’ most respected art institutions. Based on these works, Vermeer was accepted into the academy, in recognition of his budding talent.

He did not last. The academic institution was stifling for the rebel.

He later studied Digital Art and Photography at the School of Photography in New York, where he perfected his foundation in photographic editing, digital manipulation, and visual composition.

He was further inspired by Catherine Eisman, who penned the first Photoshop Training Book series, and that decided Fernando’s artistic path.

He was able to change reality with the deliberate movement of his rubber-tipped pen on a tablet.

At Checkpoint Color, his family business, Fernando had ample time to practice his craft. He remembers as a child hanging out in the shop and watching the magic unfold in the dark room, as his Rob developed his black & white films.

With access to the Checkpoint Color archive, Fernando digs up visual generational wealth which he uses in his work. He helps preserve historical images when they are presented in his contemporary artistic creations.

Fernando’s digital artworks focuses on layered and complex vintage photographs of Aruba from approximately 1900 to 1970, these historical photographs serve as the foundation on which he builds his own version of the narratives, blending past and present into colorful digital collages.

When you look at his work you take a trip down main street San Nicolas and main street Oranjestad, you recognize specific streets and business names, but they are all incorporated into a single timeline, even if they existed years apart.

Fernando reports that he has been working on the exhibition for about ten years, and it is his wish to preserve memories of events, stories, personalities, and cultural heritage, before everything is lost.

You may know some of Fernando’s work, including the design and making of the monument dedicated to the Lost Fishermen, honoring those who lost their lives at sea.

He has a large art piece at the airport, an evocative collage, but that he says must be refreshed since the airport art exhibit has not been updated in a decade, and nothing matches anymore!

Fernando also participated in a special exhibition dedicated to Queen Beatrix, celebrating the historical relationship between Aruba and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Through his layered digital compositions, Fernando continues to explore the intersection of history, photography, and Aruba’s contemporary digital art landscape, and digital storytelling, establishing himself as a distinctive creative voice on the island.

Dia di Hymno y Bandera was transformed into a memorable three‑day celebration of culture, pride, and unity, at La Cabana Beach Resort & Casino.

held on March 12, 16, and 17. 

Festivities took off with an exclusive Royal Aruba Aloe presentation, offering associates an in-depth look at one of Aruba’s most renowned brands. The session highlighted the brand’s storied heritage, its commitment to quality, and the artistry behind transforming world-class, locally grown aloe into innovative products. 

Creativity took center stage with a cultural bottle painting workshop led by local artist Angela. Associates enjoyed a relaxing and interactive environment, fostering camaraderie while expressing their artistic talents. 

The celebration continued with an enlightening lecture presented by the Departamento di Cultura, deepening our appreciation for Aruba’s rich heritage and unique identity. A spirited Kahoot Challenge followed, engaging participants in a fun and educational competition that brought everyone together. 

The Highlight of the event was reached on March 17 with an emotive flag hoisting ceremony. Matilde Benito’s stirring performance of the national anthem inspired pride and heartfelt emotion. The festivities concluded at the Chit Chat Café, where associates enjoyed live entertainment by Jerrino Bas and Chantal Quant, an especially curated local menu, and beautifully themed decorations—wrapping up the multiple day event with a joyful and unforgettable finale. 

We extend our sincere gratitude to the Social Committee, F&B team, and all associates for their unwavering dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm, which brought this celebration to life and made every moment extraordinary.