KRALENDIJK- The Tourism sector of Bonaire is showing signs of a strong recovery after the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the island in 2020 and parts of 2021. According to a survey executed by the Bonaire Hotel and Tourism Association (BONHATA), most companies are showing a solid recovery. 

Of the participating members, no less than 73% of members say their business has recovered in terms of revenue. Compared to the year 2019, more than two-thirds of the members (69%) currently have even better revenue than was the case pre-Pandemic. 

Although members stated in a survey at the beginning of this year that they had an average revenue loss of 61% in 2020, they are now more optimistic. This high season, almost two-thirds of members (65%) expect to have better revenue than 2019. However, the revenue of 8% of members has not yet recovered from 2020.

Cautious

Veroesjka de Windt, CEO of BONHATA, says: “With these results, we can cautiously say that most of our members are recovering after 2020. The corona pandemic has hit Bonaire’s economy hard, as tourism is such an important sector on the island and traveling has been discouraged. Although the corona pandemic is not over yet, we see that the number of flights and visitors has increased again. Now that new measures for visitors from the Netherlands and the US have been announced on Bonaire recently, we have to wait and see if the high season will be what we expected to be.”