Ewald Biemans honored by Minister of Tourism Edison Briesen and Director of Tourism, Myrna Jansen
All of us at Bucuti are very proud of our Ewald Biemans who was recognized during a gala event last week, produced by the Aruba Tourism Authority and the Radisson Resort Aruba where leaders of our community honored a handful of visionaries responsible for building Aruba as a tourism destination over the past 40 years.
Inaugurated by the island’s interim governor Mrs. Ella Yarzagaray, the exposition began with hundreds of historical photographs and finally a theatre type presentation detailing the history of dedication, hard work and achievements of those whose believed in the force of the island’s hospitality and the richness of its history, culture and perfect beaches. At the heart of the evening were sixteen recognitions given to key personalities, individuals whose vision and creativity quantum-leaped Aruba from a sleepy island mid 50s, to a well-defined international vacation brand.
Born in Brixen, Austria, Ewald Biemans moved to Aruba from Venezuela, where he had been working with Intercontinental and Hilton hotels, to continue his career in hospitality management in the early 1970’s.
His early career in Aruba brought renown success to the Talk of the Town Restaurant & Hotel, Calloway Corporation Airline Catering, and Manchebo Beach Resort before he developed and managed his own resort, Aruba Bucuti Beach Resort in 1987. Even with the addition our Tara Beach Suites in 2005, the resort has always maintained average year round occupancies above 90% since opening. Awards and accolades for Ewald’s resorts include the Trip Advisor’s ‘Traveler’s Choice Award” for one of the most romantic resorts in the World, National Geographic Traveler’s “Stay List”, Fodor’s “choice’, Frommer’s “find”, Island’s magazine ‘Blue List”, Bride’s hot 100 honeymoon resorts, and Expedia’s Select list..among others.
In addition to the unprecedented, consistent success in the businesses he managed as well as his own resorts, Ewald earned community respect and leadership with his passion for protecting the environment. After creating the Environmental Committee within the Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association he went on to develop programs such as ’sponsor a mile’ whereby members maintain their mile of clean roadside or beach. One of the earliest adopters of environmental protection in the region, he was the first to research certification programs, get certified and facilitate his colleagues in becoming certified. Bucuti was the first resort in the America’s to achieve ISO 14001 certification and in the first group of resorts to become Green Globe 21. Since then Ewald has brought a variety of experts on the environment to Aruba to educate tourism and other sectors on sustainable best practices. His dedication to protecting the earth in creative and practical ways have earned awards and recognition by Green Globe, American Express, the Aruba Hotel Association, the Caribbean Hotel Association, Aruba’s Ministry and the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (based in Paris) for his successful environmental program and stewardship. He is often asked to speak about his acheivements by tourism entities world wide. In 2002 the Caribbean Hotel Association named Ewald their Hotelier of the Year, with more than 1000 hoteliers to choose from.
We are very proud and honored to be part of Ewald Biemans’ winning Bucuti team and elated for his well deserved recognition.
Thank you to Rona Coster of Island Temptations Magazine for her contribution of the photograph and information about the awards event for this blog.
