How Bonaire future-proofed its tourism development plan

“As CEO of Tourism Corporation Bonaire, I am often confronted with questions such as, ‘How’s the season picking up?’, ‘How are we ranked vs other competitors?’, or ‘What’s our air service capacity like for the summer?’. I can now confidently showcase our direction and performance based on real-time data that is monitored and shared via ForwardKeys,” says Mile Mercera.

Miles Mercera
CEO

Bonaire

Bonaire is an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is Kralendijk, near the ocean on the lee side of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Venezuela.

Unlike much of the Caribbean region, the ABC islands lie outside Hurricane Alley. The islands have an arid climate that attracts visitors seeking warm, sunny weather all year round. Bonaire is a popular snorkelling and scuba-diving destination because of its multiple shore-diving sites and easy access to the island’s fringing reefs.

Tourism is the largest sector within Bonaire’s economy. In the CBS study “Trends in the Caribbean Netherlands 2019”, tourism represents approximately 38.4% of the economy. Many people work in tourism or one of its contributing sectors.

Information gaps hindering tourism development strategies

Tourism Bonaire was struggling information gaps that were hindering their business planning and tourism development strategies.

Future-proofing new ideas presented a challenge as it was led more by instinct than by scientific facts. Traditionally, the tourism organisation had planned campaigns based on historical data.

“Data is key; without it, we can’t strategise and plan. The partnership with ForwardKeys is just what we needed as it covers several areas including demographic profiles, segmentation, and seasonality. Most importantly, it provides us with the insight to anticipate market changes,” says Miles Mercera, CEO of Tourism Corporation Bonaire.

Now, Tourism Bonaire can forecast based on real-time, forward-looking data. “We see it not only as a resource but as a lifeline for all our tourism performance and data needs,” he adds.

Insights and data on secondary and new markets

ForwardKeys provided insights and data on the secondary markets as well as the new markets that the tourist board was keen to venture into.

“One of our goals for this chapter in tourism is to reposition the island. Exploring new markets can only be done with the data received from ForwardKeys. This is how we can see and analyse potential opportunities from areas in the world that previously we never evaluated as a potential source market,” says Mercera.

“Our aim at ForwardKeys has always been to help our DMO customers overcome their challenges and better plan their tourism strategies with data-based decisions,” says Lorena Garcia-Elices, Customer Success Manager at ForwardKeys.

“With access to Destination Gateway, Bonaire has at its fingertips the possibility not only to understand how the destination is performing among the markets and travel audiences of its interest but also to assess how it compares with its competitors. The ability to access this type of information regularly on an easy-to-use dashboard is something the tourism organisation values greatly,” she adds.

The result

Easy-to-access real-time data to facilitate performance monitoring

The tools supplied by ForwardKeys are straightforward to work with, while the ForwardKeys Customer Success team and analysts are available around the clock for any technical support or questions.

“I am looking forward to our continued long-term collaboration with ForwardKeys, accomplishing the results yet to be achieved as there are more great things in the pipeline,” Mercera concludes.