More tourism on St Eustatius and Saba in first half of 2022

News item | 20-10-2022 | 19:32

In the first half of 2022, around 2.4 thousand visitors arrived on St Eustatius by plane. This is one and a half times as many as in the same period last year (1.4 thousand), but still approximately half the number of arrivals recorded in the first half of 2019. This is possibly due to the number of aircraft movements, which is approximately three quarters of the number from three years previously.

The share of visitors from the US was 16 percent in the first half of 2022, while it stood at 11 percent each time for the whole of 2019, 2020 and 2021. Whereas there were relatively more visitors from the US, there were relatively fewer from the Dominican Republic and Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten.

Tourism on Saba up in first half of 2022

Similar to St Eustatius, Saba’s visitor arrivals stood at approximately 2.4 thousand in the first half of 2022, i.e. also more than one and a half times as many as one year previously. Despite this increase, the number was around half the total recorded in the first six months of 2019. Strikingly, the number of aircraft movements to and from Saba did reach or even exceeded the level of 2019. In other words, although Saba had around the same number of inbound and outbound flights, they carried fewer visitors than in 2019.

At 27 percent, the share of European Dutch visitors to Saba was higher than in the preceding years. Here as well, relatively fewer visitors came from the neighbouring Dutch islands. In 2019, their share was still more than 29 percent, versus 20 percent in the first half of 2022.

More visitor arrivals on Bonaire, fewer flights

In the first half of 2022, the number of visitors arrivals by air on Bonaire stood at more than 85 thousand, i.e. over three times as many as in the same period last year. It was even around 10 percent higher than in 2019, whereas the number of aircraft movements to and from Bonaire was slightly less than three quarters compared to 2019.

Thus, on average, there were more passengers per flight in the first half of 2022 than in the same period in 2019. The proportion of visitor arrivals from the US rose to pre-pandemic levels: around 22 percent. At 55 percent, the share of visitors from the European Netherlands, on the other hand, was much higher than the 35 percent in 2019.