The July 2026 tourism figures reveal what happens when an island where 50% of GDP depends on tourism has no coherent economic strategy. Bonaire has a tourism vision on paper. What is missing is a plan that connects that vision to air connections, capacity, marketing and economic value creation.
In July 2026, Bonaire received 669 fewer stayover visitors than in July 2025. On paper that is a decline of 4 percent. But behind that number lies a much larger story. For the third consecutive month, the North American market declined by approximately 12 percent. That is precisely the market with the highest spending per visitor. And it is precisely the market for which Bonaire’s tourism vision reserves a prominent role.
The problem is not that the vision does not exist. The problem is that there is no economic plan to realize it.
A vision without a plan
The Strategic Tourism Master Plan 2017-2027 chooses high-value tourism. Not more visitors, but visitors who add greater economic value. That sounds clear. But a vision is not a plan. A plan answers the questions a vision leaves open.
What concrete measures are being taken to restore North American air connections? Who is responsible for managing accommodation capacity in relation to demand? How much of the visitor entry tax, approximately $16 million annually, is demonstrably being used to strengthen the tourism economy? Who monitors the coherence between air connections, marketing, occupancy rates and economic value?
None of these questions has a clear, public answer. That is the missing plan.
What the figures show
The North American market declined in July for the third consecutive month by approximately 12 percent. The US: from 4,565 to 4,044 visitors (-11.4%). Canada: -35.6%. Curaçao, the largest regional market: -10.3%. The Netherlands: -1.8%.
The three largest markets together delivered 877 fewer visitors than a year earlier, a decline of 6.1 percent. Growth from Germany, Brazil and Switzerland is positive, but does not compensate for the losses from the core markets.
KEY FIGURES JULY 2026 (PRELIMINARY)
Stayover visitors: 15,984 (vs 16,653 in 2025, -4%) | US: 4,044 (vs 4,565, -11.4%) | Canada: -35.6% | Curaçao: -10.3% | Netherlands: -1.8% | Three largest markets combined: -6.1%
The economic bill
Tourism represents approximately 50 percent of Bonaire’s GDP, 53 percent of employment and 44 percent of local tax revenues. Approximately 7,200 jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on it. Tourism is not a sector alongside Bonaire’s economy. It is Bonaire’s economy.
The impact study by Economisch Bureau Amsterdam shows that a North American visitor spends an average of $2,673 per stay on Bonaire. A Dutch visitor $2,450. A visitor from the Dutch Caribbean $1,180.
The 521 fewer American visitors in July represent approximately $1.39 million in potentially lost direct spending. The 136 fewer Dutch visitors approximately $333,000. The 220 fewer visitors from Curaçao approximately $260,000. From three markets combined, that is nearly $2 million less in potential direct spending in a single month.
June and July together therefore represent a cumulative loss of potential direct spending approaching $4 million. For every month that structural action is not taken, that amount continues to grow.
These amounts translate directly into lower turnover for restaurants, dive schools, shops, car rental companies and suppliers. And through tax revenues, also into fewer resources for public services. Tourism is what puts money in the till that keeps everything else on Bonaire running.
What is missing
Bonaire has no coherent economic plan for tourism. There is no authority with oversight over the connection between air connections, accommodation capacity, marketing and economic value creation. There is no transparency about how the visitor entry tax is being spent. And there is no answer to the question of how the declining North American market is to be structurally restored.
Meanwhile, the supply of accommodation keeps growing while demand is falling. The Curaçao-Bonaire route suffers from a structural shortage of seats and return fares of $250 or more for a flight of less than half an hour. Bonaire is entering its third consecutive year with limited resources for destination marketing, while competing destinations continue to invest.
Social policy is important. But social ambitions are not sustainable without a healthy economic foundation to finance them. The economy is not a side issue. It is the foundation.
Bonaire is treating its own economy as something that will sort itself out. That is a mistake that is already measurably translating into tens of millions in lost economic value annually, as the June and July figures show.
What BONHATA is calling for
BONHATA is calling on the government and all relevant parties to take four concrete steps.
First: develop a coherent economic plan for Bonaire’s tourism. Not a vision, but a plan with concrete objectives, responsibilities and resources.
Second: restore North American air connections. This requires active governance, investment and cooperation between the government, BIA and TCB.
Third: make the Curaçao-Bonaire connection affordable and accessible. The Dutch parliament recently created the possibility to intervene when Dutch Caribbean connections are insufficient or unaffordable. That possibility must be used.
Fourth: be transparent about the use of the visitor entry tax. The approximately $16 million collected annually must be demonstrably used to strengthen the tourism economy for which the levy was intended.
Bonaire does not simply need to receive more tourists. It needs to ensure that the existing tourism economy functions well and that every visit adds as much value as possible to the island. That requires policy that takes the economy seriously, not as a side issue, but as the foundation of everything Bonaire wants to be