British Airways VIP Press Trip

The big British Airways focus continued with a VIP press trip to the island. Arriving on BA 2157 in Business Class, seven media from the largest publications landed in Aruba along with two BA hosts. Journalists from The Mail, the Sunday Times, City AM, The Mirror, The Sun, The i and Hello magazine stayed at the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino and were incredibly well looked after by Raoul Lemmerling and his team. During their flying visit to the island, the group, hosted by Aymara Boekhoudt ate at Papiamento Restaurant, Atardi and Papillion and enjoyed a very relaxing breakfast with Picnic Aruba and delightful sailing trip aboard Tranquilo. Two of the key-highlights of the trip were meeting Tito Bolivar in San Nicolas who wowed them with his passion for the area and the incredible artwork and murals, not what they were expecting to find in Aruba. The other highlight was an opportunity to plant two local trees, a Jatropha gossypiifolia and a Haematoxylum brasiletto in the Arikok National Park which coincided with Earth Day. The trees were planted not only to support the flora biodiversity of the national park, but also to symbolise the blossoming relationship between the UK and Aruba. A very happy and impressed press group departed with a fond farewell from First Class Aruba at the airport. The press articles are expected to start appearing from May onwards. A big thank you from ATA-UK and the British Airways team to everyone involved in this incredible programme and for all the local ground support