150 thousand tourists per year fly to Caribbean Netherlands
According to figures released today by Statistics Netherlands, just under 150 thousand tourists flew to the Caribbean Netherlands in 2012. In 2013 this was slightly more: around 152 thousand. This number includes both holidaymakers and business visitors. In the first half of 2014, 77 thousand tourists arrived at the airports of the Caribbean Netherlands. Most of the tourists came from the United States (including Puerto Rico) and the Netherlands (including Aruba, Curacao and St Maarten).
A substantial number of visitors to the islands arrive by boat. On Bonaire these are mostly cruise passengers: the number of cruise passengers (146 thousand) was even higher than the number of air passengersss (131 thousand). Statistics Netherlands counts only passengers who actually go ashore as tourists. Exact data on the share of cruise passengers that leave the ships are not available, however. St Eustatius and Saba do not have ports suitable for cruise ships. Visitors travelling by water to these islands do so on smaller vessels, or on the ferry from St Maarten.
Tourists arriving by air (incl. day trips), Caribbean Netherlands
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