Tourism has been good to me, and I have no reason to deny it. I can point to businesses all around the island that depend on visitors: jewellery shops selling gold and coral, bakeries supplying hotels, laundries washing sheets and building suppliers benefiting from new construction. A hotel is being built in Otrobanda, and work continues at Kura Hulanda. Almost every part of our economy is connected to tourism in some way.
Land prices have also increased, although I would not blame tourism alone. The economy was already becoming more difficult, and government taxes pushed costs up further. These problems are connected, and there is rarely one simple cause.
Our beaches show another side of the situation. Around eighty percent are privately owned, often by families or old plantation owners, and many are neglected. After Hurricane Lenny caused serious damage, the government tried to restore what it could. As a representative of the taxi drivers’ union, I inspected the damage myself and reported what I found.
The government sees our union as a serious partner, but we have to keep fighting to remain at the table.
That is often how participation works here. We are consulted because we continue to demand a voice.
Taxi work used to be easier. There were fewer tour buses, local people used buses and tourists used taxis. Today, large buses—some of them double-deckers imported from the Netherlands—are our biggest competitors. I have no objection when established tour operators collect cruise passengers in their own licensed vehicles.
What frustrates me is the unregulated transport. Private buses come to the harbour and collect passengers for ordinary journeys into town, even though this is against the rules. It is rarely controlled. When only one cruise ship is in port, every lost passenger makes a difference to a self-employed driver.
The harbour also becomes blocked on busy cruise days. Taxis cannot move, but neither can ambulances or fire engines. Our union has raised this with the police. I believe the city needs another access road and should restrict downtown traffic to taxis during certain hours.
Behind these practical problems is a bigger concern. Many businesses on Curaçao are foreign-owned. It is difficult for local people to establish their own companies, partly because of the permit system and partly because Curaçaoans do not always support one another.
If I opened a bakery and a white foreigner opened another beside it, I sometimes think many local customers would choose the foreign-owned one simply because it was foreign. On some other islands, I see more solidarity between local people.
Curaçao has everything it needs, but we must learn to give fellow islanders a fair chance and build tourism together.
Aruba markets itself much more strongly and invests several times what Curaçao does in tourism promotion. We need to think more seriously about how we present our island and how local businesses can benefit.
Some complaints from visitors are completely justified. The Isla refinery, located in the middle of the island, causes pollution and breathing problems for many residents. Other matters need careful handling, including regulated prostitution and drugs. As a taxi driver, I sometimes worry because I do not know what a passenger may be carrying in a suitcase.
What I return to most is solidarity. There are about two hundred taxis on Curaçao, and our union represents around one hundred and thirty-five drivers. I want the others to join us. A united union is taken seriously. Without it, every self-employed taxi driver stands alone.
Tourism is our first source of income. We have the people, the culture and the island to make it work—we simply have to organise it fairly and do it right.