The retirement of hotelier Andy Osborn was announced recently at the ATSA meeting, the Aruba Timeshare Association, held at La Cabana Beach Resort & Casino.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Tourism and Public Health, members of the Aruba Timeshare Association, also present Ursell M. Arends, the Minister of Integrity, Nature, Transport and Elderly Care and Endy Croes, the Minister of Education and Sport.
Andy picked an admiring, well-attended forum to announce his retirement.
ATSA President Luigi Heredia, Costa Linda Beach Resort, expressed his heartfelt gratitude for service rendered in the name of the association and together with Sulaika Kelly, Playa Linda Beach Resort, presented Andy with a lovely painting, a typical Aruba landscape by artist Elvis Tromp.
Andy who arrived here from Barbados has lived in Aruba since 1992 and has worked tirelessly for tourism in various functions. His career took him from the Aruba Caribbean Hotel to Sun Development where he managed Casa del Mar and the Aruba Beach Club, then to the Mill Resort, Palma Real and in past years Paradise Beach Villas, shoulder to shoulder with Freddy Albertus.
Andy was the first president of the Aruba Timeshare Association, as it was just formed.
In his own words, the timeshare resorts felt they were contributing to the hotel association at the time, 1997, but had no voice in many major decisions. That ‘taxation without representation’ propelled the timeshare resorts to form their own association, separate from the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, and while ATSA is perhaps less vocal than its big sister AHATA it is nevertheless very active in the community and works in close collaboration with the University of Aruba and with the Aruba Tourism Authority.
Andy, charming and smooth, delighted the forum with his stories from the good ol’ days of ATSA with fellow hoteliers Jan van Nes and Lee Di Giovanni and the many projects undertaken by the association from adopting EPB, a secondary vocational school, to Adopt an Addict, and many beautification projects, including the Aruba Product Enhancement Fund responsible for beach and roadside cleanups and security.
Andy announced he was retiring from formal work but not from fun. It was an absolute pleasure to serve the association, but he will from now on direct his attention to a number of community projects related to the elderly.
Member of ATSA offered Andy a lifelong membership in the association: “Stop in for lunch at any meeting,” they said, “thanks to your diligence, we can afford to feed you!”
