Kralendijk- Island Governor Edison Rijna expects that the coming week will see concrete decisions about the time and the way in which Bonaire will reopen for tourism.

Rijna emphasized that, so far, no decisions have been taken. “I understand that everyone wants to know where we stand, but important discussions remain to be made and only then will concrete decisions be made.”

A meeting is scheduled for coming Tuesday between the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the local health services. The topic of the meeting is to discuss how Bonaire can open up for tourism in a responsible manner. Rijna expects that after this meeting local Government will be able to decide on the exact way forward.

The Island Governor also indicated that the decisions of the islands will have an impact on the way of traveling between the islands. “As things stand, Aruba and Sint Maarten will (directly) open to tourism from -for instance, the United States. Curaçao and Bonaire do not want to do this yet. This will therefore also have implications for travel between Bonaire and Aruba, vice versa.”

Opportunities

Rijna indicated that the crisis also offered opportunities. “We have often spoken, even before this crisis, about the fact that Bonaire has a number of important choices to make when it comes to the sort of tourism we want. For example, do we want to focus more on mass or on high-end tourism?”.

According to Rijna, it will be necessary to work with the tourism sector on how to tackle important issues together with Government. “Obviously you all play an important role in this,” the Lieutenant Governor told the representatives of the sector.