The subject of conversation this week is, among other topics, the intention of introducing a new tax for stayover tourists, collected by a mechanism already in place, the ED-Cards. The amount mentioned unofficially is $35, per person, per visit.
The amount is designed to help us buy, install, and run, the Bubali gray water plant, and 24ORA also quoted the minister of transportation who declared a part of that amount will go as income to a new sui-generis, Aviation Direction, a privatized entity within the government.
I have paid similar taxes around the world, some were charged transparently, some were hidden, built into another charge.
They called it differently in each country, Transient Occupancy Tax, Toeristenbelasting, Taxe de Sejour, Tax to Protect Nature and Culture, Climate Crisis Resilience Fee, Sustainable Tourist Tax, it’s everywhere from a few cents added to accommodations, daily, to flat fees upon entry. Jamaica imposes an Accommodation Room Tax (GART), as well as Entry & Departure taxes. I paid $20 to enter Bonaire, as a resident of a Dutch island.
In total, the Bonaire Visitor Tax is $98.00 and includes the $75.00 Bonaire government tourism tax, discounted to $20 for neighbors. As of January, last year, all cruise lines entering Bonaire’s waters collect an added cruise tourist entry tax of $10 from each passenger.
We have nothing against it. It’s only fair, our visitors must help us cope with waste, it is a shared responsibility. And we should take a page out of the Bonaire playbook and include cruise-ship passengers in our upcoming program, because we have too many of them already, and if they want to come here, their footprint must carry a price tag.
Utilities Aruba N.V, the umbrella entity of WEB & ELMAR will be the recipient of the collected cash, $20 x 1.2 M visitors, you do the math, we hope that for Awg 42M they will be able to run and support the new plant.
But we are not confident. Which brings us to the subject of how Utilities runs WEB & Elmar.
We had no blackouts in 2020, because we had fewer people on the island. In 2021, we had one, in 2022 we had four, in 2023, one and early in 2024, we already had the first, one that lasted three-four hours. The minister of energy announced that it was unacceptable. And we at once felt much better about it. Not a word mentioned about energy management.
WEB and Elmar have a hard time keeping the island energized. In the future we will need a greater supply of water and electricity for our economy, but since as I mentioned yesterday there is no transparency about what’s in the pipeline, we cannot plan.
Without major investments, into a doubtful change to Hydrogen fuel systems, or major investments into Solar & Wind energy, WEB is already burdened with massive cash flow issues needed for production and distribution upgrades.
Politicians have no idea how to manage our infrastructure while they go about their regular daily spending, of about AWG 4.5M, each day.
All Western economies are based on fossil-fuel energy. The costs in these economies are defined by the price of energy. Aruba’s economy is much more sensitive to energy prices because we do not produce anything, we must import it all. Products are delivered here by international transportation and our existence here is completely dependent upon energy.
What would happen if oil prices doubled? Tripled? We already spend about 20% to 30% above our earnings. Our energy companies have no space to maneuver and aren’t friendly to locals who want to produce their own energy.
In the energy world, one must have vision, short term, medium, and long, beside plans and contingencies.
Where are ours?
Why don’t we work together to maximize solar energy farming? Get our island off fossil fuels, within the next decade. The island of El Hierro, not as famous as Aruba, in the Canaries is powered 100% by renewable energy.
Why not Aruba?
