The Jamaican based regional hotel brand, Sandals is being credited for Curacao’s tourism renaissance since it opened its first-ever Dutch Caribbean resort in the island in the summer of 2022.

Since that time everything seemed to have changed for the better in Curacao’s tourism with some industry leaders saying the “Sandals Effect” has led to the record-breaking tourism numbers on the island, particularly from the United States since then. Hotel occupancy on the island is already nearing 72% for 2023 with average daily rates up 8.1% and revenue per available room rising 9.5% to US$163.43 so far in 2023. 

While the entry of the Sandals brand in Curacao cannot be understated, its growing popularity is just part of the success story of the Dutch Caribbean island that has been smartly growing its hotel stock in recent years with a focus on the biggest thing in travel right now. Curacao has welcomed new and popular resorts from brands like Wyndham, Zoetry and Hilton, among others.

With the Sandals effect, the island is witnessing sustainable tourism growth. In fact Curacao’s tourism renaissance has shown no signs of slowing down, even as some destinations in the Caribbean have started to cool off, the destination continues to boast big numbers in visitor arrivals.

The latest numbers are even better with the island reporting 49,258 stopover visitors last month, a whopping 15.5% more visitors than the island received in an already record-breaking August 2022. Those stopovers generated 417,712 visitor nights in August, up 7.8% compared to the same period in 2022.

In addition, there has been a higher length of stay of 9.09 nights per trip.  The numbers were borne out in the hotel sector, which saw sizzling 76.7% hotel occupancy in August, which 4.9% higher than August 2022 — even in a typically slow season for Caribbean tourism. Curacao Hotel and Tourism Association’s new interim director, Jim Hepple is pleased at the strong performance, noting the continued growth of the US market and, interestingly, a sizable increase out of Brazil as well.