Aruba

Aruba is an arid and relatively small (30Km x 8Km) island and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Southern Caribbean Sea. The planned full independence were never reached and actually rescinded in 1995.
Together with Bonaire and Curacao forms a group of islands called ABC Islands and they are part of Dutch Caribbean.
Total population is estimated around 116.000, official languages are Dutch and Papamiento but English is widely spoken.
Tourism and related activities counts for two thirds of the island gross national product.
In the recent years, Aruba had around 1,000,000 stay-over tourists, 75% of which coming from North America and around 10% form Europe.
The Cruise tourism brings more 800.000 passengers visiting the island.
From a real estate point of view, there is a good availability of houses with value for money.
The tourism is more hotel oriented than rental houses but there are opportunities especially with reference to European tourists.
The coral reefs of Aruba have been neglected in the past and till few years ago they were not as attractive as other Caribbean islands.
Diving in Aruba is traditionally related to the numerous wrecks surrounding the island but in the recent years there is an effort to improve the coral reefs which start to give encouraging results.
There are definitely opportunities in diving and sustainable tourism to be further developed.
Residence shall be not a real obstacle being part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Aruba is therefore one of the shortlisted destination we will visit in the near future.


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