To the Point

In my blog i have elaborate most of the vital things that Aruba as an Island want's to put emphasize on.
I wrote some of the traditions and what the island have to offer to there tourist.

Sins the separate status  of Aruba, Aruba has been putting more attention to the tourist and has put them as a main priority. They have build allot of new mall and places for entertainment and activities. They want to bring out the culture in any way possible because it's very vital to them and they want to  show there visitors where they came from and what they grew up with.

The nature of Aruba's citizen is being humble, the people  are very caring and they are able to help you at anytime.And if in a country the people who lives there treats you like there own it makes you more comfortable and appreciated in the country. And that is the feeling that Arubiaan citizen want's to give to there visitors.

Aruba also has beautiful nature that they want to put emphasize on for example : beautiful beaches, nice rock formations and it's history behind it.

So for a perfect marketing strategy you have to get to know the island inside out and mingle with the people and get to know the culture. The combination of all these things brings out something beautiful.

The people of Aruba

Aruba has about 120,000 inhabitants these people  are a broad international mixture of  people with a pleasant nature and sense of hospitality. The modern Aruban is generally of mixed ancestry, claiming Caquetio Indian, African and European roots. Today, the island claims over 79 different nationalities who live and work on the island.

Income
50% of the income in aruba comes from the tourist that visit aruba, that's why aruba has been working on a strong marketing strategy to keep loyal tourist coming to the island. That's why the community of aruba helps to emphasize to aruba as a " HAPPY ISLAND" as the slogan of aruba says.

That's why the sincerity of a warm smile and friendly attitude of the Arubans are not lost on the guests of the island, with many visitors to notice that the people who still care for them to come back to the island. With so many different influences on the island, Aruba retains its uniqueness, as evidenced by the openness of the population.

 

Hotels

Aruba has over 23 hotels with different quality to suit your needs. You have the low rise area witch has hotels that doesn't have high floors so it is adequate for people who doesn't like to be on high floors. Most of these low rise hotels are not literally in front of the beach you have to cross the street to get there.

More at the north side of Aruba you get the area that"s called " The Palm Beach" there is where most of  the high rise hotels are located and the mall Paseo Herencia is in this area too. These high rise hotels are literally in front of the beach so you can just get out of the hotel and your at the beach.

You have hotels of different accomodation and price. There are also hotels that are all inclusive.
The hotels also provides you with activities, entertainment and happy hours.

Night Life

In aruba there"s so much to do when it comes to night life, for young and old.
Aruba has night clubs, malls that are open till 11pm, lounge,party boats and of course the casino's are open 24 hours so you can enjoy it also at night.

Night clubs
Aruba has different night clubs, so you have a night club for any kind of taste of music. You have Latin, urban, trance, jazz, hip hop, r&b and so you can go on.

Sizzles
Sizzles is situated at paseo herencia ( a mall that stays open till 11pm but the night clubs stay open till 3am) near the hotel area palm beach. Here they play jazz music with live bands every weekend.

Confession
Confession is also situated near the hotels at palm beach. This night club is for the younger people,
here they play all kind of music hip hop,urban,latin and trance. Friday is Latin night, you can come dance salsa,merengue, bachata and merengue Dominicano.

Oude Molen
This club is situated underneath an old windmill. It is one of the few clubs that stays open till 5am, so it's like an " after party" when u get out of the other clubs that closes at 3am. There they have also all kind of music , but they play more  songs that has been made by the Arubiaans or people of Curacao.

7west
7west is situated more towards the main street " Royal Plaza". At 7west on Wednesday  and Tuesday they have 1 dollar bar so the club fills up with allot of people that like do drink. They also play every thing from trance to slow dance and from rap to Latin.

South Beach
South beach is also located near the plam beach. South beach has consists of a few clubs like : rembrant, milanos, de pijp and busters. These clubs are more like a lounge area to lay back have a drink and socialize.

Senjor Frogs
Senjor frogs is a night club that attracts allot of tourist, because they play allot of music of other countries there and it makes the trourist feel more at home. They do contests, karaoke and other games.

Tattoo party boat
Tattoo party boat is a boat that sails around the island with music,drink and food.
They also do salsa shows on the boat.

Live shows
There is also shows that brings out the culture of Aruba. These shows are provided by some hotels. These shows gets you in touch with the Arubaan culture.

During the years lots of the night clubs has moved to the hotel area where there is more motion and more tourist.

Beaches

Aruba Beaches

 There are plenty beaches  along the coast of Aruba, they are  on of  the cleanest, widest and most attractive beaches of the Caribbean. The beaches are all public and access is easy, through a  car park right on the beach.
Topless sunbathing

Topless sunbathing and swimming is not against the law, and tolerated on most beaches in the resort areas, but not on resort grounds.

 

Aquatic activities

Scuba Diving

Diving in Aruba is famous for the spectacular shipwrecks and interesting coral formations that dominate Aruba’s underwater realm.
Aruba’s dive sites lie along the protected western and southern coasts.
You find your self in a whole other world when your diving into the deep blue sea.

Kite and windsurfing













You can learn how to kite or windsurf in Aruba
it's a fun activity to do once you learn it.

Sail and boat trips

 You have alot of choices of catamaran. You can choose between snorkeling and diving, dinning, a party catamaran and a one to sail and watch the sun set. it is allot of fun when u go with a large group of people.

Off road

Off road is an activity that is done by allot of people in Aruba. This is an adventureus way to explore aruba. You can rent a jeep and explore the wild side of the island and reach to the most popular attractions on the north coast. Attractions that you can visti in the north coast are :
1. Natural pool

The Natural Pool or "conchi" is a hidden pool on the windward coast surrounded by rocks. The location of the pool is surrounded by some of Aruba’s most rugged terrain, so visitors truly gets the feeling of having "discovered" something when their eyes focus on the site.

2.Natural Bridge

This was one of Aruba's most popular attractions.( collapsed in 2005) The bridge was a formation of coral limestone cut out by years of pounding surf, and was one of the largest of these types of spans in the world. It standed some 7 meters above sea level and spans more than 30 meters. But now there is a small one.

3. The light house

The stone lighthouse was constructed on Aruba between 1914 and 1916. It's named after the S.S. California, a wooden sailing ship that sank near shore. This light house u can visit there by car.

4.Aruba's gold mine smelters ruines

Aruba's Gold Mine Ruines (Bushiribana Ruins) are the remains of a gold smelter that was built of natural stone in the 19th century. 

5.Quadiriki caves

Here you can see Arawak drawing on the wall ( Arawak were the first habitants of Aruba). The name came also of Arawak origin ( Quadiriki). This isn't the only place on the island where the Arawaks drew their likenesses of people, fish and other objects, but it is the most accessible.

Activities to do in Aruba

Now that i have told you about the culture and traditions in Aruba, i'm going to eleborate to you some activities that are a must in Aruba. These activities are attracted by allot of tourist that visits the island. These are memorable times that you will embrace.

Tradition Dera Gai

An Aruban tradition celebrated every year on June 24. History tells that San Juan festivities occur on the southern part of Mexico and came to Guatemala and other countries in Central America to Venezuela and passed on to Aruba.

Aruba celebrates San Juan in a unique way. San Juan celebrations in the early times had more to do with superstition. The purpose of the festival is for the harvest ,it was to thank the many gods for good harvest year and to request them to harvest the next year.

During the festivities, there were various games, like jumping over the fire, traditional dancing, singing, stories and jokes told, this is done all around the fire. This festival was something big in Aruba  it was a holiday. In the past on June 23  the workers got the afternoon off, and June 24 all day.

The tradition to bury  a live cock  (buried = dera gai = rooster) was very common in those days. Today it is simply unimaginable to do that.

In Santa Cruz a century ago, they changed the party a bit. They no longer use a live cock, but instead turned it into a flag of different colors :  red, white, blue , green, and yellow flag with red border. These flags are then placed on a table. Then several participants would be blind folded and have to try to  grab the flag when the signal is given. Whoever grabs the flag first wins.

Tradition Carnival

Aruba has different tradiotions one of the most populer is Carnival that takes place every year in the month of January and February. Everyone give allot of time and afford for the season of Carnaval, by preparing there group, costume and carriage.


The origin of Carnival can be found thousands of years ago. The word is derived from the Latin carne vale, meaning farewell to flesh, referring to the time when many Christians gave up eating, drinking and unacceptable behavior for Lent. The onset can be traced back to ancient celebrations held for gods.
Colonization introduced this phenomenon to the New World and brought it to the Caribbean.

Culture

Aruba has a multicultural culture, because several countries has brought there own believes and culture to the island in the past and those culture influence has been carried along the years. And that has been the culture of Aruba ever sins.

Language
Papiamentu and Dutch are the official languages ​​of Aruba, but the most Arubans speak a minimum offour languages​​, including English and Spanish.

Papiamento is a language that originated from Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, some French, English and some of the African languages​​.  Papiamanto sounds allot like Spanish or Portugese. The language is supposed to have evolved in Curacao in the 16th century, when the slaves and their Spanish ownersdeveloped common ground to communicate an has been brought to Aruba and Bonaire, but the pronunciation of papiamento in the ABC- island are not the same.

Introduction of Aruba

Aruba  is a small island in de carribean that belonged to the Netherlands Antilles but they got (status aparte)  separate satus for a few years now, so Aruba doesn't belong to the Netherlands Antilles anymore but still to the Netherlands. The Netherlands Antilles consists now of Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.

In this blog i'm going to draw out the feeling that Aruba wants to express to there tourist en people who live there. I'm going to write about there culture, language en the way that Aruba want to be represented internationally.