KRALENDIJK- Bonaire is on track to set a record for the number of cruise ships visiting the island next year, with a total of 214 visits. This information was shared earlier this month in a presentation by Kia-San Silberie from the port office. 

Never before has the island been visited by so many cruise ships. However, these are not all different ships. Various cruise companies and ships visit the island multiple times during the cruise season.

Silberie emphasizes that the number of visits is still tentative. “These figures change almost daily because cruise companies are still adjusting their final schedules.” For the years 2025 and 2026, there seems to be a smaller number of ships visiting the island, but that is because many visits for these years have not yet been finalized or confirmed. As time goes by, the number will still go up.

There is a strong recovery in the cruise market after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Public Entity Bonaire (OLB) expects to conclude 2023 with a total of 175 cruise ships visiting the island, still under the 186 which visited the island in the year 2019. In total, the OLB expects that in 2023, a total of 470,000 cruise passengers will have visited the island.

Season

The number of ships as well as the number of cruise tourists varies significantly throughout the year. The months of January through March and then December are annually the busiest months for cruise tourism.

Between May and October, roughly coinciding with the summer months in Europe and North America, as well as the hurricane season in the Caribbean, the island receives significantly fewer cruise tourists. This amounts to about 15% of the number of cruise passengers who visit the island during the four busiest months of the year.