Hotelbeds and Aruba join hands to boost tourism in the Caribbean

Hotelbeds has announced an agreement with Aruba Tourism Authority, the official Destination Marketing and Management Organization (DMMO) for the Caribbean island of Aruba. As part of the agreement, the destination marketing team of Hotelbeds will drive incremental tourism arrivals to the region and work with Aruba Tourism Authority on recovery efforts through till the end of August 2021.

The objective of the partnership is for Hotelbeds to market and improve the level of inbound tourism into the Caribbean island by increasing both the overall room nights generated as well as  revenue performance.

This will be achieved by attracting incremental visitors to the region from international source markets by leveraging Hotelbeds’ contracting team in Aruba to gain access to special promotional rates and exclusive deals on hotels and activities.

Additionally, via the company’s Bedsonline brand – which distributes solely to travel agents – the campaign will introduce initiatives such as exclusive hotel rates for travel agents and host dedicated training webinars to show how Aruba has adapted to COVID-19 travel and safety measures.

Aruba will benefit from focused promotion to the over 60,000 travel trade buyers – including retail travel agents, tour operators, airlines, and points redemption programs – that work with Hotelbeds in over 140 source markets globally.

Such travel trade buyers typically offer more international arrivals that in turn deliver high-value customers who spend more in destination, stay longer, cancel less, return more often and book further out than typical direct-to-consumer customer profiles.

Gareth Matthews, marketing and communications director at Hotelbeds said: “We will highlight to our partners the steps Aruba is taking to welcome back visitors and promote safe travel. Like all of our campaigns, the goal is to drive incremental demand from international markets and provide high-value guests for our hotel partners.”

Edward Malone, North America director at Aruba Tourism Authority added: “As we maneuver the challenges of COVID-19, our focus is to drive consumer demand while emphasizing the safety and health of travellers to Aruba – as well as showcasing the quality vacation experience that visitors deserve and can look forward to. While we understand that not everyone is ready to travel yet, we also recognize the need for recovery. Travel planning, supporting the travel agent community, and bouncing back to delivering high-value bookings for hotels and attractions is crucial.”