Today, CHATA member Hilton successfully hosted the 3rd day of the Marketing Retreat, kicked off by UCF’s Robertico Croes’ who presented highlights of the 2015-2020 Strategic Tourism Masterplan to key stakeholders. Croes’ presentation was succeeded by Vincent van der Pool’s presentation indicating the importance of the involvement of the locals in tourism. Van der Pool indicated that tourism has a considerable indirect spin off effect, and therefore benefits and involves the whole island, implying that tourism growth starts with our people. The ministry of economic development presented a review on the Tourism Industry’s economic impact indicating a considerable growth of the Tourism industry’s economic impact. The ministry specified an economic impact of $602 Million that grew to an amount of $746 Million in 2014. Moreover, the projection for 2015 is an additional growth to $805 Million. The Curaçao Tourist Board presented its marketing initiatives with a breakdown of its specific activities in specific markets justifying its marketing budget. Curaçao Airport Partners’ conducted the final presentation indicating an average load factor of 75%. Curaçao currently hosts 15 airline partners occupying 28 worldwide gateways from 5 regions, with an annual seat occupancy of approximately 1,1 Million. A special thanks is extended to CTB as a partner in the Marketing Retreat Week.