Industries in Depth

Aruba's PM: Log on from the beach for a 3-month 'workation'

Tropical beach sunshine environment

Workations are allowing tourist-dependent countries like Aruba to weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ceri Parker
Previously Commissioning Editor, Agenda, World Economic Forum
This article is part of: Sustainable Development Impact Summit
  • Aruba is offering "workations" to Europeans and Americans.
  • It has a high-tech approach to COVID testing.
  • The country's Prime Minister spoke at the Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Summit.

As a Caribbean island where 80% of GDP is linked to tourism, Aruba has had to think creatively about how to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its latest offering is aimed at digital nomads who can email or Zoom from anywhere: visit for a "workation" of up to three months. Citizens of countries including the United States and Europe's Schengen area don't need a visa, while the country has a high-tech approach to COVID-testing.

Tourists visiting from at-risk areas will need to take a test before travelling, but most visitors are able to take a test on arrival. Results are typically delivered within 8 hours via an app, explained Evelyna Christina Wever-Croes, Prime Minister of Aruba, at the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Summit.

Loading...

"Our ambitions are not only geared towards bouncing back but bouncing forwards with accelerated innovation," she said.

Globally, the pandemic has hit the travel and tourism industry hard. A worst-case scenario for 2020 predicts $5.5 trillion lost in GDP in 2020 along with almost 200 million job cuts as a result of COVID-19.

Helping the industry recover will mean focusing on safety, small group trips, access to nature and sustainability, participants in the session agreed.

You can watch the full discussion below.

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Travel and Tourism

Related topics:
Industries in DepthForum Institutional
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Travel and Tourism is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

1:49

Impact printing: Robot speed-prints walls by firing lumps of clay

Why having low-carbon buildings also makes financial sense

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum