Tourism on Bonaire and Saba up in 2019
The number of visitors arriving on Bonaire by air rose from 147.8 thousand in 2018 to 157.8 thousand in 2019. Nearly half originated from Europe (49 percent), with the Netherlands accounting for 39 percent. This is similar to previous years. Furthermore, Bonaire has many cruise passengers visiting the island: 458 thousand in 2019, representing a 15-percent increase. Cruise tourism growth was mainly seen in the low season (May through October).
| BON | 2016 ( x 1,000) | 2017 ( x 1,000) | 2018 ( x 1,000) | 2019* ( x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12.2 | 12.4 | 13.2 | 14.8 |
| Feb | 11.5 | 11.1 | 12.1 | 13.7 |
| Mar | 12.5 | 11.4 | 13.8 | 16 |
| Apr | 12.6 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 14.1 |
| May | 10.4 | 9.6 | 11.2 | 12 |
| Jun | 9.9 | 8.7 | 11.3 | 12.5 |
| Jul | 12.4 | 10.7 | 12.1 | 13.1 |
| Aug | 10.2 | 8.3 | 10.9 | 11.9 |
| Sep | 9.1 | 8.8 | 10.2 | 10 |
| Oct | 11.9 | 11 | 11.9 | 12.2 |
| Nov | 11.1 | 11.2 | 12.1 | 13.4 |
| Dec | 12 | 13.5 | 15.1 | 14.1 |
| *Provisional figures | ||||
Substantial increase in visitor arrivals on Saba
Saba also recorded an increase in the number of visitors arriving by air last year: 8.9 thousand, versus 8.1 thousand in 2018. It had declined in the two years prior to 2019, mainly due to hurricanes Matthew (September 2016) and Irma (September 2017). Most visitors were from Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten. American and European Dutch visitors were good for 25 and 18 percent respectively.
In 2019, Saba also received 6.5 thousand ferry passengers from St Maarten, i.e. an increase of 20 percent on the previous year. Another 1.6 thousand passengers arrived on the island on two smaller cruise ships.
| SAB | 2016 ( x 1,000) | 2017 ( x 1,000) | 2018 ( x 1,000) | 2019* ( x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Feb | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Mar | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| Apr | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| May | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Jun | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Jul | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Aug | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Sep | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
| Oct | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Nov | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Dec | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| *Provisional figures | ||||
Number of visitors to St Eustatius unchanged
In contrast to Bonaire and Saba, the number of visitor arrivals by air on St Eustatius in 2019 did not rise compared to the previous year. A possible explanation is that the number of air passengers did not go up either last year. In fact, there were fewer inbound flights.
Similar to Bonaire, most visitors on St Eustatius were from Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten (31 percent), the European Netherlands (22 percent) and the United States (11 percent).
| EUX | 2016 ( x 1,000) | 2017 ( x 1,000) | 2018 ( x 1,000) | 2019* ( x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0.9 | 1 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Feb | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Mar | 0.9 | 1 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Apr | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| May | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Jun | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Jul | 1 | 1.1 | 1 | 1 |
| Aug | 1 | 1 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Sep | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Oct | 1 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Nov | 1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Dec | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| *Provisional figures | ||||
Papiamentu
A Papiamentu translation of this news release can be obtained from Statistics Netherlands’ office on Bonaire by sending a request via email to: caribischnederland@cbs.nl
Sources
Related items
- Website - World Tourism Barometer UNWTO
- News release - More flights and passengers in the Caribbean Netherlands in 2019