More Than Baseball and Tourism: Delta’s Curaçao Flight a Bridge to Business for Dutch Caribbean Island

When the new flight to the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao takes off from Atlanta Saturday, officials hope it will bring more than snowbirds and sun-bathers.

Beyond tourism, they believe the flight can be a bridge to business for an island perhaps best known to Atlantans a breeding ground for Major League Baseball stars.

The connection with Atlanta started with Braves legend Andruw Jones, who as a 19-year-old hit home runs in his first two at-bats in the 1996 World Series, then spent 12 seasons patrolling centerfield for the Braves. His number was retired this September, seven years after he entered the team’s Hall of Fame. Fans waved Curaçao flags during the recent ceremony.

On Friday, Mr. Jones was on hand at a Curaçao tourism event at (where else?) the Atlanta Braves Chop House at 755 Battery Avenue, where officials praised Delta’s reinstatement of the weekly flight (on Saturdays only for now) after a 13-year hiatus.

“I want you to know that the people of Curaçao are very very proud of you,” Minister of Economic Development Ruisandro Cijntje said to the 10-time Gold Glove winner. “You put Curaçao on the map, and especially in Atlanta, Ga., and for us and for me, you are the best centerfielder ever.”

Mr. Jones paved the way for other players like current second baseman Ozzie Albies, said Mr. Cijntje as he framed the flight as transformative for the tourism sector on an island of 150,000 people.

“I am counting on your enthusiasm to passionately share the allure of Curaçao,” he said to journalists, travel writers, tour operators and others assembled at Truist Park. “Let’s captivate not just travelers from Atlanta but also visitors from over 100 American cities, inviting them to experience our vibrant people, rich culture, exquisite cuisine and breathtaking natural beauty.”

The minister also thanked the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Atlanta for its role in helping promote the flight and facilitate meetings that led to its fruition.

Consul General Jaap Veerman said he was grateful to have had a “little hand” in helping make the connection.

“I also want to congratulate Georgia and the rest of the United States because this offers opportunities only for tourism, but also for cultural cooperation, economic development and cooperation, and knowledge cooperation,” he added.

Mr. Veerman offered the consulate’s assistance in connecting businesses on both sides and said efforts are afoot to bring artists from Curaçao and fund scholarships for Curaçaoan students through the Netherlands American Foundation’s Atlanta chapter, launched in 2022.

Asked cheekily to do some explaining for Delta’s absence from the market for so long, Ben Bubnovitch, director of international networking planning for Latin America and the Caribbean, focused more on why Delta returned.

Upon doing a deep dive into the destination, he was “stunned” by what he saw in the numbers: the tiny island generates $100 million revenue for U.S. airlines.

“This is an enormous opportunity, and it was a huge miss that we were not serving it,” Mr. Bubnovitch said.

Adding more urgency was that after prioritizing the “big-box” tourism destinations that remained open during the pandemic, traveler preferences shifted as the threat subsided, he said.

“People were looking for smaller, boutiques premium destinations that really had kind of a niche offering that was more personal and more personable than you would get in the large destinations, and that really to me is what Curaçao represents.”

Delta already serves the other Dutch Antilles islands of Aruba and Bonaire; now it adds the “C” to the chain known as the ABC islands.

That doesn’t go quite far enough, Mr. Bubnovitch said before throwing out perhaps the most crowd-pleasing line of the event.

“I’m so grateful that you mentioned the ABC islands; I want to add a D for that — for Delta.”