Curaçao North Sea Jazz brings island $16.3 million dollars

WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival yielded the island over 16.3 million dollars, which is an increase of 311 percent compared to last year. With this, the economic spin-off of the festival is enormous. This appears from an evaluation by the Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida.  Under the direction of the Aruban teacher Tico Croes, the team evaluated the economic impact and the value of the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival twice in a row. The research showed that the festival attracted the attention of lucrative market sectors both nationally and internationally and of international visitors traveling the world to visit music festivals.  Flushed with money The festival attracted 4930 tourists, which is twice as many and more than last year. On average, this group stayed on the island for 7.3 days and spent 1716 dollars; this is an increase of respectively 93 and 52 percent compared to last year. The visitors of the festival spent 233 dollars per day, which is more than twice the amount of last year (107 dollars). The latter is also higher than the amount spent by the average tourist visiting our island. The festival exerts a great attraction on a new group of international tourists who, according to reports, earn a top salary or have more money to spend on the island than the average tourist visiting Curaçao has. Eighty percent of the tourists indicated that the festival was the main reason to visit Curaçao. High quality The majority of the festival visitors appreciated the high quality of the event. The festival also contributed toward increasing their knowledge of Curaçao. Moreover, they indicated the event reflected the culture of Curaçao. The visitors also found the price/quality ratio very good, regarding admission fee, food, drinks and products. The value is also reflected in the important expansion of Curaçao’s reputation. The results of the research show the visitors found the more they enjoyed the festival and the latter offering the opportunity for social contacts, the more likely these visitors would attend the event in the future, recommend it to others, inspire friends and family to come along and consider the festival as their first choice for a visit next year. The festival offered a wide range of celebrated artists including Sting, Stevie Wonder, Ruben Blades and Juan Luis Guerra. The organizational costs amounted to almost 4.9 million dollars this year, an increase of 1.7 million dollars compared to 2010.