Natalee Holloway's Impact on the Tourism demand of Aruba

The principal purpose of this thesis research is to analyze what effect the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an American teenage girl, had on the tourism demand of Aruba. This effect will be measured by looking at the most important markets of the Island which are the US, Venezuela and the Netherlands. A review of cases will reveal if personal harm (loss), in combination with lots of media attention, can have an impact on the tourism demand of a location and therefore also give an indication of what can be expected in the case of Aruba. The paper focuses on answering the question: How has the Natalee Holloway incident affected the tourist inflow for the island of Aruba? The findings in this thesis research suggest that the three major markets of Aruba were not significantly impacted from the Natalee Holloway incident, this also applicable for the whole tourism sector considering that these three markets give a good representation of the full tourism market.