Flair: DushiDeals, the deals site on Curaçao

In the Ik vertrok (I left) column of Flair (page 42), Marloes Meijer talks about her life on Curaçao and about DushiDeals, the deals site she founded there. In the piece I appear as her boyfriend Gijs (32).

How the idea came about

Marloes explains that a year earlier we had been on holiday together on Curaçao. We wondered whether there was already a Groupon site, a deals site, for the Antilles. It turned out there was not, and that gave her the idea to set one up herself. She set up the DushiDeals website in the Netherlands and then moved to the island, where she had lived since October 2011.

Doing business without online payments

The piece shows how different doing business on Curaçao was back then. There was no online payment system, and so there were no online shops either. DushiDeals therefore ran through a Dutch provider. That made us, at the time, the first company on Curaçao where you could pay online with iDEAL, and that made the news.

Local businesses offered discount deals and islanders bought them. On the first day we sold a sushi deal with 50 per cent off, more than 150 coupons. People rang the restaurant owner to ask whether it was a joke or a scam. Within half a year DushiDeals had more than 100,000 registered members.

My role

The column says that I stayed in the Netherlands at the time, because my own business kept me there. I flew back and forth every four weeks, because I did not yet have a residence permit; in the end I lived on Curaçao for 2.5 years. In the weeks in between we spoke almost daily via Skype. Marloes is the legal founder of DushiDeals; the question it all started with, we asked together on that holiday.

Early with video and new media

At the time we were well ahead with new media. For DushiDeals we made many YouTube videos, because I strongly believe in video marketing: a short video shows in a few seconds what a deal is, who is behind it and why you should look. On an island where online shopping was still new, that worked better than text and photos alone. The videos are still on the YouTube channels @DushiDeals and @dushidealss.

The Dushi VIP Card

I also introduced the Dushi VIP Card. With a purchased card you got a discount at businesses we had selected ourselves: places we liked to go to, because they set great store by quality and service. The launch came with an intensive campaign of adverts on local radio, and with its own commercial on YouTube. Watch the Dushi VIP Card commercial.

I have kept that conviction about video. In 2019 I wrote 11 tips for making videos findable on YouTube for Dutch Cowboys, and video is still a fixed part of my work on YouTube marketing for businesses.

An early example of local marketing

For me, DushiDeals is an early example of local marketing: a platform that brings local businesses and customers together on one island. That is still the core of local SEO and of a well set up Google Business Profile. You can read more about my background on my about page.

DushiDeals after the Flair article

DushiDeals still exists. On dushideals.com you will find vouchers for restaurants, wellness, activities, tours, tickets and hotels on Curaçao. According to the DushiDeals frequently asked questions, all deals are 50 per cent off, and you can pay with iDEAL, Sentoo or PayPal, among others.

The campaign with Campo Alegre (2016)

In 2016 DushiDeals launched a striking video campaign around Campo Alegre, the large open air brothel near the airport of Curaçao. Wikipedia calls Campo Alegre the largest legal brothel in the Caribbean; it closed in 2020. With a DushiDeals voucher you got 50 per cent off entry, a bucket of Polar beer and a 30 minute massage. Because of the nature of the location, the offer received a lot of publicity on the island. Watch the DushiDeals campaign video on YouTube. I dance in the video myself as an extra: the man in the white shirt with the voucher in his hand. Everyone in the video was hired, all rights have been bought out and Campo Alegre gave permission to use the footage.

DushiDeals no longer offers deals around Campo Alegre. The platform focuses on legal local activities, restaurants, tours and wellness.

About this source

The page comes from Flair and is available online as a PDF from Rianne Klazinga, who conducted the interviews. The PDF does not include a year, so no date is given for this source. The crop above only shows the part about DushiDeals and me; the article itself belongs to Flair.