Mail from readers: We noticed another substantial piece of land cleaned in front of Divi Phoenix Beach Resort for future hotel development. We have to admit that between the former MinInfra and the current MinInfra, they did a pretty good job of dividing all available terrain among their financial supporters during the last 10 years. Word is that the land just cleaned in front of Divi Phoenix will host an Embassy Suites type of resort with 330 rooms, with some beach across the street, consequently not a five star, a joint venture between a Venezuelan investor and the Neme brothers who previously thought of opening a small condo project in that same area, Natura, but changed gears when the other investors came along. Further down on that same coastline you will find Azure condominiums, and the adjacent Las Olas condominiums. Le Vent Condominiums at the back of Chalet Suisse plans on opening at the end of the year, and more toward the hospital O Condominiums are now under construction. The group that developed Palm Aruba, is talking about Marriott Residences, to be introduced in Bubali. Divi Phoenix may expand with a tower or two towards their tennis courts and by the year 2020 when Aruba has over 10,000 rooms we are going to ask ourselves the question: “Why, and what for, did we do all this”? The term moratorium will come up again, due to the absence of one.
This question “why are we doing this” was recently answered by economist Arjen Alberts who has dedicated an extensive study to economic development in Aruba and St. Maarten with the question how well we have prospered from tourism. His conclusion was published in an article recently headlined in Amigo di Aruba, and that in a nutshell said: ”The fact that each year more tourists are coming to Aruba does not signify that prosperity is on the rise”. On the contrary, the prosperity index has been the same for the last 25 years. Our GDP rises each year but that does not mean, according to Alberts, that prosperity is on the rise as well. His shocking conclusion is that Aruba has not prospered from tourism these past two or three decades. When our GDP grew so did our population and it was mostly foreign labor who went on to fill the vacancies created by new hotel development. The cake as he explains indeed got bigger but so did the number of slices, as the cake got cut into many more pieces. Alberts even speculates that our prosperity may further decrease in the future or stay the same. The bottleneck according to him is the lack of space. The island is filing up. We ran hard but did not advance. The only solution according to the economist who lives in St. Maarten is to focus on the tourist experience, welcome less tourists who spend more.
That brings us to the questions of where is the famous moratorium? Albert’s vision of less tourists spending more money is self evident. And we would vote for a politician that publicly declares that it’s not about money, and the marketing awards, but about Quality of Life. And I would welcome an opposition party that objects to continuous development in the race for more accolades. Aruba must focus on improving its product and attracting bigger spenders. At the current level of service, the big spender ain’t coming, so STOP before we reach the level of 150,000 residents with an inadequate infrastructure incapable of handling a densely populated island. The solution: Introduce that much talked about moratorium on construction, then go to work to improve our Quality of Life, because it’s true, if we’re happy, the tourists will be happy!
