The key findings of the survey are:

• 2007 financial performance for hotels was slightly down and condominiums was slightly higher compared to 2006. The year 2008 will bring additional challenges, due to reduced airlift, the global economic crisis and rising energy costs.
• though slowing, the development pipeline remains active;
• significant room capacity is being added in the non-English speaking Caribbean;
• 2008 year to date tourist arrivals has increased in certain major markets when compared with 2007 figures.

You can download the survey report at the KPMG website.

In related news: one of the things we said at the presentation was that there are hardly any cross-medial websites on Curacao. The same day we said this, we heard about a new news site for young people in Curacao and Holland. This site uses a cross-medial approach to inform people about what’s happening on Curacao and appears to be pretty interesting.

The reporters are interns from Fontys Hogeschool in Tilburg (The Netherlands) and the website is set up with the help of Radio Netherlands Worldwide and local radio station Dolfijn FM. When the interns leave again to Holland their jobs are taken over by new interns from the same school so it should remain fresh and forward thinking.

The last couple of years there have been many changes in the way the businesses on Curacao handle their representation on the internet. We’re seeing all these changes up close and personal of course and we think that Curacao is on the right track. However, we’re definitely not there yet. The train has just started and is getting up to speed, but is still a long way from the last station (assuming there is one).

Some of the reasons for this late adoption of the internet on Curacao are the late implementation of high speed internet, the difficulty with getting an internet merchant bank account at the local banks (for online shopping) and, most of all, the general lack of knowledge about how the internet can help a business succeed.

With this seminar the Curacao Women’s Network aims to defuse some of the myths concerning the internet, give people the facts about how the internet is helping other people and businesses and to present some of the things that are possible with the help of the internet.

For this last part of the pitch (the ‘vision’ part) they have asked us to do a presentation about what is possible online and, more specifically, what might be reality on Curacao in the near future. Regretfully we only have about 15 minutes for our presentation (we could fill a few hours on this subject), but in the time we have we want to talk as much as possible about what we think is reachable within a few years. With a bit of luck we can set some wheels in motion and help at least one person with his/her business.

An extra reason to come: the seminar will be held in the auditorium of the Bank of the Netherlands Antilles so we will need to shave (Oscar and Joost that is) and we will have to wear a suit and tie. Not a lot of people get to see us like this….

With all these advances and the good things that result from them we also see the hacks, the snake oil salesmen and the people that just don’t know any better ride the same wave. Especially this last week we have encountered the good (luckily), the bad and the very ugly.

The Good
Earlier this week we got an email through a contact about a Curacao map web-application. It is built in Flash and is the first well-built local map application that we have seen so far. With this application you can find any street, neighborhood and important city center in Curacao with the click of a button. Not only does it work like a charm, but it also looks very good.

We spoke with one of the developers today and he told us about the idea and the goals of this website. We were especially impressed with the fact that they used the government’s data to build the map instead of just copying over one of the maps you buy in a store (so, there are no copyright issues). They are currently working on monetizing the website and they have some pretty solid ideas on how to grow this organically and on what kinds of functionality they should add in time. (more…)

She was born on Sunday May 25 at 3:22 AM and is a healthy and beautiful girl!
Dad Oscar and mom Morela are proud parents.

Of course Joost and myself consider ourselves a bit of family to Oscar and decided to become Uncle Joost en Auntie Bo.

Welcome Sofia!!!!

When people look at trends, we can see what is going on at that moment and can think about how we can - and have to - use these trends in our business. However, people usually don’t look much further than that nor do they take the time to look beyond what’s in front of their noses. That’s where trend analysts like Michael Tchong come in. (more…)

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We are currently looking for a content editor (or two part-time content editors) who will become responsible for the content of a large tourism website. We posted an ad in the Amigoe (local newspaper) of today and have reproduced the ad below.

If you’re interested you should read the ad below. The gist of the requirements is that you need to be good at writing English texts and you need to have a ‘feel’ for the tourism industry as well as a lot of experience with the internet. We would like you to start May 5, 2008, but this also depends on the client and yourself; we’re pretty flexible in this. If this sounds like you and you’re looking for a great job in the internet business, you should apply. (more…)

Since about 6 months we’ve been working together a lot with Bas Kok Creatieve Communicatie and several future projects are planned with them. So, to keep the lines of communication short, we’ve moved in with them in their new office.

The setup in the new office will be relatively similar to the old one and an added bonus is that we share a conference room with Bas’s people for contact with clients and presentations. This will look a lot better to clients than having to sit with us in the work room.

Note: Dragonfly and BKCC have not merged. The two companies will remain as two separate entities but we will be cooperating more in the future.

The Princess Wilhelmina Fund is the Curacao cancer foundation. Its American counterpart is the American Cancer Society. The PWF helps cancer sufferers on Curacao with financial aid, treatments, prostheses and information. Their work is very worthwhile and we want to help them improve their information distribution and their ability to raise funds. We think that a new and improved website can help them reach these goals.

The Academy Hotel Curacao is an initiative of CHATA and the Curacao Hospitality Training Foundation (CHTF). The idea of this new hotel (which will open in September 2008) is that it is run entirely by hospitality students. Curacao has a lot of students studying for jobs in the hospitality industry but it can be very difficult for them to get intern positions for the shorter internships (1 to 3 months).
Therefore this new hotel will be set up so they can get on-the-job training and we’re not just talking room attendants, waiters and cooks here. All positions (except for General Manager) will be filled by students. As our main niche is the hospitality industry we want to contribute to this great idea which we believe will help the people of Curacao to fill as many jobs as possible in the booming tourism and hospitality industry on Curacao.