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Aruba

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Aruban Tourist Resort

Oranjestad is, in addition to the capital, an important place in the tourist industry. Here is the port for the many cruise ships that visit Aruba. The cruise industry is a very important pillar of tourism in Aruba, since during a cruise a large part of the passengers go ashore to visit the island. With 334 “cruise calls”, Aruba received 815,161 cruise tourists in 2018. According to some sources the 2017/2018 cruise season brought $102.8 million to Aruba’s economy. Oranjestad is also home to several luxury hotels, several upscale shopping malls and several tourist-oriented shopping streets, including “Mainstreet,” and hospitality facilities. The main street, called Caya G.F. (Betico) Croes, has been redesigned in recent years, including new paving, new palm trees and a streetcar line for tourists.

Also elsewhere on the island you can find the necessary tourist accommodation, even in (private) apartment buildings.

Transportation:

Aruba has two ports, Barcadera (in Barcadera) and Playa (in Oranjestad). The latter services all the cruise-ship lines such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL, Holland America and Disney. Nearly one million tourists enter this port per year. Aruba Ports Authority, owned and operated by the Aruban government, runs these seaports.

Arubus is a government-owned bus company. Its buses operate from 3:30 a.m. until 12:30 a.m., 365 days a year. Private minibuses/people movers service zones such as the Hotel Area, San Nicolaas, Santa Cruz and Noord.

A streetcar service runs on rails on the Mainstreet.

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Queen Beatrix International Airport Entrance

Queen Beatrix International Airport, colloquially known as Aruba Airport, is an international airport located in Oranjestad, Aruba. It has flight services to the United States, several countries in the Caribbean, the northern coastal countries of South America, Canada, as well as some parts of Europe, notably the Netherlands. It is named after Beatrix of the Netherlands, who was Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 to 2013.

The airport offers United States border preclearance facilities. A terminal for private aircraft opened in 2007. The airport used to serve as the hub for bankrupt airline Air Aruba, which was for many years an international airline. Before Aruba’s separation from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 it was also one of three hubs for ALM Antillean Airlines as well as a home base for Tiara Air until 2016.

Since 2013 the airport is home to Aruba Airlines, a local airline. The airline has three Airbus A320 family aircraft and two Bombardier CRJ200. The main focus of Aruba Airlines is connecting the region through its hub.

Flag of Aruba:

Aruba’s national flag was adopted on March 18, 1976. The design consists of a field of light blue (called “Larkspur”), two narrow parallel horizontal yellow (“Bunting Yellow”) stripes in the bottom half, and a four-pointed white-fimbriated red (“Union Flag red”) star in the canton. The flag was designed in part by vexillologist Whitney Smith.

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Flag of Aruba

The four colors and symbols each have significance:

Light Blue signifies the sea that’s surrounding the island of Aruba.

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