Tourism Corporation Bonaire (TCB) together with its partners the Public Entity of Bonaire (OLB), BONHATA, Bonaire International Airport (BIA), and the Harbor Master held its quarterly press conference to provide an overview of Quarter 2 Tourism performance outlook for winter 2022/2023. A noteworthy analysis that was shared during the press conference is the fact that Bonaire welcomed 11,410 visitors (non-residents) in August 2022 of which 9,806 originated from international markets such as the Netherlands and USA and 1,507 originated from the CAS countries, 44 visitors from the BES islands and 53 visitors were registered as transit passengers.
In the coming period, the focus of Bonaire’s government will be to develop in a well-balanced manner. The goal is to raise the quality of tourism, which should lead to better income for our citizens.
Veroesjka de Windt, CEO of BONHATA shared that the 1st Quarter of 2022 started well with an average occupancy of 82% but we have measured a decline in the occupancy percentage starting April which was 79% and it hasn’t gone up since. Quarter 2/3 shows an average of 66%. While if you compare the same months with those of 2021 you see that we did better last year. In comparison, July & August 2021 had an average occupancy of 71 and 74% while 2022 measured an average hotel occupancy of 64 and 58%. BONHATA concludes, similar to TCB that the champagne effect is wearing off. BONHATA shares that all other destinations are open for business which impacts the ABC islands. For Bonaire, that means that there is work to be done and possibilities. Whilst we might have lower occupancy, we have measured an improvement in terms of our Average Daily Rate. The Average Daily Rate 2022 for Q2/3 is $227 and the forecast for Q3/4 is $235. Compared to Q3-4 of 2021 the ADR was $ 192. One can translate to fewer people but more revenue. When talking about the ADR of accommodations it is good to mention that the ADR for BONHATA members ranges from $86 to $800 per night.