Q2 stakeholders meeting

Action plan in review

Tourism Corporation Bonaire (TCB) together with its partners the Public Entity of Bonaire (OLB), Bonaire Hotel and Tourism Association (BONHATA), Bonaire International Airport (BIA) and the Harbor Master held its second stakeholders meeting for 2023.

CEO of TCB, Miles Mercera shared the performance overview for the second quarter of 2023. For 2023, the target number of visitors based on the Tourism Master Plan is set at 170,000. Based on our KPis until May around 76,552 visitors visited the island, and the country of origin shows that 48% comes from the Netherlands, 23.5% from the USA, 15% from the former Netherlands Antilles, and the rest from different countries. TCB has different co-op campaigns planned with KLM, TUI, Corendon for the European market, while there are different campaigns planned for the North American market as well, such as co-op with Expedia, Flash Flamboyance campaign and so on. Airlift updates was also shared, with the island announcement of flights with Winair, and there are ongoing conversations with current and new airline partners. Also other on island projects, and upcoming events such as the Annual Bonaire Tourism Summit, and the Bonaire Tourism International Conference.

Veroesjka de Windt, CEO of BONHATA shared updates on the accommodation performance, with an average occupancy of 71% so far for this year. In comparison, 2022 had an average overall occupancy of 76% while in 2019 measured an average occupancy of 77%. The ADR for 2023 is $246. Compared to last year, the ADR was $225. The Revenue per Available Room for 2023 is $176, compared to 2022 which was $163.

Maarten van der Scheer, CEO of BIA, share that the Flamingo Airport reported a growth in total passenger numbers for the first half of 2023 of more than 8% in comparison to last year. Mayor improvements to the current facility are planned and already under construction. Currently, the baggage reclaim belt is being renewed and enlarged, as well as the arrival hall itself. The start of Winair to Sint Maarten in July is improving connectivity to the Windward Islands. The airport is currently working on the schedule for coming winter and is aiming for new routes and frequencies, especially to North America.

Gunther Flanegin, Harbor Master presented the most recent data for the months of October 2022 to May 2023, which showed a total of 171 cruise ships that visited the island, with a total of 423,000 visitors. He also mentioned that there were a total of five new first calls in 2023, which were Ritz-Carlton Evrima, Carnival Celebration, Norwegian Prima, Royal Rhapsody of the Seas, and Ponant Le Ballot.

As part of the Tourism Recovery plan the stakeholders initiated the joint quarterly tourism press conferences with the aim to promote and foster collaboration and inform our local community on the developments within the tourism industry. TCB in collaboration with its stakeholders will continue to inform our community on a quarterly basis on the developments, opportunities and challenges in the Tourism Industry.