ORANJESTAD — The license agreement for the Aruba logo between tourism bureau ATA and the Damox company will be revised. This explains why the company had not paid the license fee last year. The current fee is 36,000 florins and 4 percent of the turnover that Damox receives from selling the logo products.The aforementioned appears from answers of States questions from the AVP-parliamentarians Juan David Yrausquin and Paul Croes presented to Minister of Tourism Otmar Oduber (AVP) on the rights and use of the Aruba logo. From the answers it’s clear that ATA does not consider the distribution and promotion of products with the Aruba logo as their core tasks. For that reason the company wanted to contract out those tasks, which according to ATA, also reduces the costs. The answers do not reveal in which way and the amount.

Unclear

Nor is it clear why the government transferred the brand/copyright of the logo to ATA, being an independent government organ. The transfer means that all profits from the logo go to ATA and the license holder(s). The tourism bureau only states that ‘several possibilities and constructions’ were looked into. The choice for the transfer was made ‘in view of ATA’s independent structure and because the extra revenues would be used to promote our island internationally’. However, this does not answer the questions from the parliamentarians about the financial advantages of that transfer and why the government had not chosen to give ATA a license.

The tourism bureau confirms that the Damox company was founded at their request to conclude the license agreement. That request was made to the Graphics and Beyond company, which according to ATA had presented ‘the best quotation and suggestion’. Although the agreement had been concluded last year, it now appears this will be revised. The parties wish to complete the relevant negotiations at the beginning of this month, said ATA. Only then will Damox have to pay the license fee from last year. It’s not possible to pay the 4 percent of the turnover of sold logo products, said ATA, because the sales only started in January this year.

Pride

From the answers to the States questions it also appears that ATA paid half a million florins in 2010 to launch the new logo. An amount of 50,000 florins is reserved again this year to increase the promotion of the logo on Aruba. With the logo and other expressions, the tourism bureau wants to make the Aruba logo lively through the behavior of the local population towards tourists and tourism. This is to contribute towards increasing the feeling of ‘pride’, said ATA.