Aruba reports tourism increase in first two months of 2003

URL The Associated Press 3/25/03 10:58 AM

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- Aruba has reported a more than 7 percent increase in tourism in the first two months of 2003 compared to the same period last year, although the growth came before the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Caribbean leaders fear that the war will hurt their struggling economies, keeping tourists away just as they recover from a slump following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The U.S. market had a 9.6 percent increase in arrivals in Aruba and the island had an increase of 9.9 percent in room-night bookings, the Aruba Tourism Authority said Monday. The number of room-night bookings in January and February was nearly 306,000 compared to 278,000 during the same period in 2002.

Aruba reported that the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, including Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., led the upsurge with a 20.4 percent increase. The Northeast followed with a 12.5 percent increase, tourism officials said.

Aruba is an autonomous Dutch Caribbean territory of about 70,000 residents some 15 miles north of Venezuela.

On the Net: www.aruba.com