TRAVEL TRENDS - May 2026 STRONG FINISH, DIFFERENT SHAPE

For the first time this year, Curaçao's average length of stay sat below the prior year's same month. The gap is small. The implication is not.

April closed the winter high season with the headline numbers still firmly positive. Curaçao welcomed 75,332 stayover arrivals, a 10% increase over April 2025 and the island generated 594,638 visitor nights (+8%). Cruise activity remained strong with 83,026 cruise arrivals (+14%)

across 30 ship calls. Volume continued to expand. The pattern within that volume, however, has been quietly changing each month and April was no exception.

Average stay in April was 7.9 nights, down from 8.1 nights in April 2025. The year-to-date trajectory now reads: 9.4 nights in January, 8.6 in February, 7.8 in March, 7.9 in April. Some of that compression is seasonal. Long holiday stays naturally inflate January and February. April, however, sits well past peak season and is the first month to fall below its own year-ago baseline.

Composition explains part of it. North America (+15%) and South America (+15%) both grew faster than Europe (+7%) in April and both regions skew toward shorter trips. But composition is only half the story. Within individual markets, stays are also getting shorter. US travelers averaged 5.5 nights this April compared to 5.9 a year ago. Canadian stays compressed from 7.7 to 7.3. Argentine visitors, even as their arrival counts more

than doubled, shortened from 8.2 to 7.2.

For property owners, this is the operationally relevant data point. The same number of guest arrivals now requires more frequent calendar transitions than it did twelve months ago.

THE COMPRESSION TAKES SHAPE

The four-month picture tells a story that any single month obscures.

January's 9.4-night average was supported by long winter holidays. Dutch visitors averaged more than 13 nights and Canadian holidaymakers stayed nearly 11.

As the winter holiday window closed, both composition and behavior shifted. By April the typical guest stayed roughly 90 minutes less per booking than the typical

January guest, expressed across nights. Two forces are pulling in the same direction.

The mix is rebalancing. European share of arrivals fell from 41% in January to 40% in April while North American share rose. South America's contribution is the highest it has been in any month since the tourism board began publishing the current series. The markets that historically book longer trips are growing more slowly than the markets that book shorter ones. That alone would compress the average.

Behavior is compressing within markets. American stays dropped roughly 7% YoY and Canadian stays dropped 5%. Argentina is the most striking case: arrivals more than doubled, average stay shortened from 8.2 to 7.2 nights and total nights from Argentine visitors nearly doubled from 9,675 a year ago to 19,212 this April. More guests, staying shorter, generating substantially more total nights. That combination is exactly the pattern reshaping the calendar. Dutch stays held essentially steady at 11.4 nights, making them the analytical outlier rather than the typical pattern.

The combined effect is steady headline growth paired with quietly increasing operational density. Same occupancy, more transitions.

Signals and Actions for Owners

The Signal:

April was the first month in 2026 where average stay length declined YoY. The four-month

trajectory points to a structural shift in booking behavior rather than a seasonal dip.

Why it matters:

Shoulder season — May through September — does not historically include the long-haul holiday stays that anchored the winter average. Without those anchor blocks, the natural mix of summer North American family trips and late-arriving South American demand will compound the trend rather than reverse it. April's 7.9 nights is unlikely to be the floor.

The Action:

Specific changes to make in the next 14 days:

• Recalibrate minimum stays for May through September. Three to four nights is a more realistic floor outside peak weeks.

• Reserve longer minimums for true high-pressure windows such as US holiday weekends and Southern Hemisphere school breaks.

• Reset listing photos for shoulder season. Pool, terrace and outdoor living spaces should lead.

• Tighten response times. Shorter lead times mean the first responder often wins the booking.

• Open weekday inventory. Many owners maintain Saturday-to-Saturday rules from winter. Mid-week check-ins are increasingly common from South American travelers and should not be blocked

Owner Takeaway:

The calendar rules that produced winter performance will erode summer performance

if they are applied without adjustment. Shoulder season rewards a different operating posture than peak season did.

WHERE THE GROWTH ACTUALLY CAME FROM

April's regional mix marked the first material change in the year's pattern. Three shifts deserve attention.

North America took the lead. Regional arrivals reached 25,245 (+15%), and for the first time in 2026, North American growth exceeded European growth. The split was nearly even between the US at 20,491 visitors (+14%) and Canada at 4,754 (+22%). Canada's pace YTD is now +29%, more than four times the US pace (+6% YTD). What looks like a single regional story is in fact two distinct ones. American travelers averaged 5.5 nights and

concentrated heavily at resort hotels (68%). Canadian travelers averaged 7.3 nights with roughly an even split between resorts and alternative accommodations. The Canadian visitor is operationally closer to a European than to an American.

Europe's secondary markets weakened. The region delivered 29,760 arrivals (+7%) on the strength of the Dutch print. The more useful detail is what happened underneath. Germany dropped 39% (1,017 visitors versus 1,654). The United Kingdom fell 13%. France declined 26%. Austria fell 46%. Belgium grew modestly (+7%) and Switzerland posted +44% from a smaller base, but the broad pattern across non-Dutch Europe was

softness rather than growth. Some of this may reflect Easter timing and school calendars; some may be the early effect of weaker consumer sentiment in northern European economies. If German and UK softness persists into May, the breadth of European demand will look meaningfully tighter than the regional total suggests.

South America's composition changed almost beyond recognition. Regional arrivals grew 15% to 15,267, but the internal mix is the more interesting story. Argentina arrivals more than doubled (2,667 visitors, +126%). Chile more than tripled (804, +217%). Peru more than doubled (1,106, +108%). Uruguay added +49%. These are the Southern Cone markets. Meanwhile Venezuela collapsed (-73%), Brazil was effectively flat (-1%), and Colombia, the historical regional anchor, decelerated to +9%. The shape of South American demand has fundamentally shifted in twelve months. Average stays from these new growth markets are longer than from Colombia (Argentina 7.2 nights, Chile 7.1, Peru 4.5, versus Colombia 5.1) and the booking calendars are different.

Southern Hemisphere holidays fall in May, July, and December, closer to Curaçao's shoulder season than to its peak.

Caribbean activity surfaced one outlier. Total Caribbean arrivals grew 8% to 4,324, but Aruba alone delivered 2,111 visitors (+68%), nearly half the regional total. The Aruba surge is worth flagging. It may reflect strengthening short-haul travel between the ABC islands or cruise-passenger conversions. Either way, it is the largest YoY movement inside a regional segment that has been declining for most of the past year.

WHAT SHOULDER SEASON WILL REVEAL

The first four months of 2026 were unusually clean for owners. Long European holidays anchored the calendar through February. North American winter travel filled the secondary slots. The combination produced steady occupancy with relatively few decisions required from owners and managers.

The next five months will not be that.

Shoulder season strips away the long-stay anchor. Historically, May through September average stays on the island fall in the 6 to 7 night range, roughly two nights below winter averages. That alone moves the math. Add to it the within-market compression now visible in April's data and the shoulder-season floor for 2026 may sit closer to 6.5 than 7 nights. European share of arrivals will decline further as summer travel concentrates closer to home. South American Southern Hemisphere holidays will produce flexible, latebooking demand from the Southern Cone markets now driving regional growth. North American summer trips will bring 5 to 7 night family escapes. Caribbean weekend traffic will continue at modest volumes. What remains is the underlying market without the holiday-anchored long stays that camouflage it during winter.

April was a preview. The trajectory suggests stays will continue to compress through summer, that bookings will increasingly arrive within 30 to 60 days of travel rather than 90 to 120, and that the calendar will assemble itself in smaller, more numerous increments throughout the period.

For property owners, the implication is not that performance has to weaken. It is that performance now depends on different decisions than the ones that worked in February. Owners who hold winter strategies steady through summer will see gaps appear quietly across the calendar. Owners who adjust — shorter minimums, faster responses, willingness to accept the four-night booking that would have been rejected three months ago — will likely see steady occupancy continue.

Shoulder season is where the market is actually visible. The owners who manage well through it tend to be the ones who manage well through everything.