Aruba and Curacao are Caribbean islands located in the Netherlands Antilles. Both islands are popular tourist locations because they are outside of the hurricane belt and are rarely hit by a hurricane or tropical storm.
Located only three hours by air from Miami, according to the U.S. Department of State, 1.25 million people visit Aruba each year and 75 percent of them come from the United States. These visitors spend an average of $2,354.9 million annually.
Curacao attracts five percent of all American visitors to the Caribbean, and these account for 25 percent of the 250,000 annual visitors to the island. In 2006, the government hired a United States public relations firm to bring more American tourists to Curacao.
Snorkeling and scuba diving are top tourist activities on the two islands. Curacao and Aruba, often referred to as divers' paradises in scuba brochures, offer coal reefs, shipwrecks and marine life including stingrays, moray eels, lobsters and sea turtles.
Tourists enjoy shopping, dining, gambling in the islands' casinos and relaxing on some of the best beaches in the Caribbean, according to the Best Beaches of the World website. Additionally, the historic area of Curacao's capital Willemstad was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1997.
