Tamarijn Aruba All Inclusive receives first check-ins, November 28th, 2020

At the wake of a US$5 million investment, all of its rooms, are now fully renovated, and ocean front.

Just prior to opening regional director Alex Nieuwmeyer and general managers Marin Bijk and Ferry Zievinger showed Danguillaume P. Oduber the local Minister of Tourism, Public Health & Sport around the remodeled and renewed property.

The resort has been closed since March and management seized it as an excellent opportunity for construction. All rooms were gutted, nothing is left of the 70s style construction, just the magnificent views. Then the design team came up with a contemporary room layout, worthy of its stunning vistas.

Tamarijn All Inclusive was built in the early 70s, as a few long two-story blocks of rooms along the ocean, all facing blue, and guests have enjoyed that fantastic feature ever since. There were wooden staircases leading to the upper floors and no balconies. Later in the 80s, wooden balconies were attached and the resort expanded, adding a few more long, two-story blocks of rooms along the ocean.

The rooms remained pretty much the same over the past years as the pool deck, the restaurants and the guest experience in general, were continuously upgraded. Until the pandemic, which provided an opening for change.

Nieuwmeyer reports he shopped for furniture and materials in 2019, thinking there will be a gradual renovation down the road, but things sped up in March, and on Black Friday, the minister enjoyed the privilege of inspecting well-appointed modern rooms in quiet subdued hues, comfy king- or queen-size beds, luxury Indian cotton linens, inviting sitting corners in some rooms, sofa beds in others, tan wood paneling with indirect color-changing LED lights, oversize floor tiles, oversize smart TVs with Netflix settings, easy to reach power outlets, walk-in showers with glass partitions, rain shower-heads, coffee makers and as a sign of our times a hand-sanitizer dispenser across the room door. The wood staircases morphed into elegant stairways with stainless-steel banisters and glass.

In the 2020 design, the rooms had annexed the terrace space and new terraces were constructed, extending out to sea, closer to the blue, this time in brick and mortar with glass balcony partitions, escorting unobstructed views into the rooms, which are now 7m2 bigger. And bigger is better, more space to lounge, and laze, because vacationers will most probably spend more time in their rooms, now.

According to Nieuwmeyer, Tamarijn has always been a top seller, enjoying 90% occupancy year-round. He looked at the graphs the other day and noticed that dips over the past 26 years of his leadership only occurred after the 9/11 events in NY, during the 2008 world economic slump and in 2020 in honor of a new virus.

Nieuwmeyer, has been on the island for 26 years and under his direction, Divi Resorts evolved and thrived as a fine-tuned vacation machine, making people happy, employing more than 1,000 locals.      

The government acknowledged Nieuwmeyer’s passion, commitment and love for Aruba, especially its tourism industry, when the minister presented Nieuwmeyer with a commemorative plaque and a heartfelt thank you. The inscription “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose, all that we love deeply becomes a part of us,” nicely sums up Nieuwmeyer’s relationship with the island, it is part of his being.   

The dignitaries were served a refreshing drink after the tour, at the Bunker bar, a historic WWII Allied Forces bunker now carrying a popular watering hole on its shoulders.