A group of certified event planners from the US, all top decision-makers in the MICE market, visited Aruba over the weekend and was dined and wined elegantly and extravagantly by the members of Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, AHATA.

Their intense program included site inspections, cocktail parties, and dinner affairs, all designed to introduce the island and its superbly diverse tourist product, in consideration of future group business.  

Over the past few years Aruba has been making considerable efforts to attract Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions, in large and small groups first via “Meet Aruba,” the AHATA marketing arm and recently by means by its evolution, the ACB, the Aruba Convention Bureau of North American, an exciting joint initiative between the public sector, the Aruba Tourism Authority and the private sector, the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association.  

“The Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association is happy to represent Aruba as the contracted entity for the MICE market in North America, and in working to attract greater group business to the island,” comments AHATA President and CEO Rob Smith on the recently-signed agreement with the Aruba Tourism Authority.

“We already have 35-plus shows which we will be participating, together with AHATA-member resorts, and we are on track with reaching targeted goals this year. With the new additions to our Convention Bureau staff, with Carol Daughtery as the Regional Director of Sales in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and Hal Davis heading up sales efforts in the Mid-West, we expect to foster continued growth of the MICE market through the promotion of Aruba’s world-class resorts, state-of-the-art convention facilities and diverse offerings, as well as our convenient air connections and TIEA status.”

“We are very excited about the future,” reports ACB’s Heather Linton, “Under the name Meet Aruba the industry assumed we were a destination management company and that our services cost money. Now as we changed names to the Aruba Convention Bureau of North America, we get instant recognition. Industry professional know they can come to us with their business, and expect no charge since we are working for the destination, and our service to them is free of charge.”

Pictured here top decision makers from the US, getting to know the island, as hosted by the Aruba Convention Bureau of North America.

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