Aruba's minister of tourism, Otmar Oduber, resigned from his
post on Nov. 3, according to Oduber's Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Neither the Aruba Tourism Authority nor the Ministry of
Tourism issued formal statements in response to his resignation, which was
immediately effective.
Oduber recently made waves as the architect of the
controversial law Aruba passed in August restricting the number of
all-inclusive hotel rooms on the island to no more than 40% of the room total,
and an annual 20% cap on all-inclusive room nights sold by European Plan (EP)
hotels, i.e. properties that do not generally include food and beverages in the
room rates.
The law put the Aruban government at odds with Aruba's hotel
trade group as well as the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association, which
opposed the law.
Travel industry insiders in Aruba said in off-the-record
comments that Oduber cited an inability to garner the support of other
government officials for his programs as one of the reasons he resigned, and
indicated that he might create his own political party.
In a social media video, Oduber said that after 17 years of
support for the Aruban People's Party, he felt that the party had strayed from
what it once stood for.
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Gay Nagle Myers contributed to this report.