Saba’s tourism figures

Tourism Caribbean Netherlands 2012
Published Tuesday, June 3, 2014, Source: CBS

In 2012, a total of 112 thousand tourists arrived by plane to the Caribbean Netherlands , including 40 per cent from the Netherlands and 20 percent in the United States . Of these, 82 thousand tourists flew to Bonaire , to Sint Eustatius 19 thousand and 11 thousand to Saba .
Caribbean Netherlands consists of the islands of Bonaire , Sint Eustatius and Saba . The tourism sector plays an important role in the economy and employment in the islands . This article provides an overview of some key indicators of tourism in the Caribbean Netherlands in 2012 . These are provisional figures . The figures are compared with the figures published in earlier years among others by the tourist offices of the three islands.

Saba

Monthly 900 tourists by plane
In 2012 about 11 thousand tourists came to Saba by plane, an average of 900 per month. The numbers are pretty similar to the figures for 2008 and 2009 of the Saba Tourist Bureau ( STB ).

Number of incoming tourists by air , Saba by country of origin
Most tourists on Saba came in 2012 from the Netherlands ( 40 percent ) and the USA ( 20 percent , including the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) . Approximately one in ten tourists Saba came from Canada and one in ten tourists came from the former West Indies and other Caribbean islands . These rates are reasonably comparable to those from 2008 and 2009. The part of American tourists was in 2012, slightly lower than the number reported by the STB for 2008 and 2009. Air traffic in Saba mainly came from St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and St. Barthelemy. These islands were also the main destinations on departure.

Number of nights spent by tourists by plane on Saba , 2012
One in five tourists on Saba is day tourist. The tourists who came to Saba by air in 2012, stayed on average 5.5 nights . As with St. Eustatius , this figure is somewhat distorted by tourists staying longer than 7 nights stayed at Saba . Slightly more than one in five tourists arrived for a day trip ( no overnight stay ) and a quarter remained one or two nights on the island .

In 2013 Saba had 38 accommodations for tourists of which 55 percent cottages, hotels 24 percent, 18 percent villas and 3 percent apartments. The total bed capacity was approximately 330 beds . Hotels offered little more than half of the total number of beds (55 percent). This capacity is almost twice as much as that of the cottages (31 percent) .

Both pleasure craft and small cruise ships to Saba
Saba has no natural harbour where large ships can go. There is, besides boating, a limited amount of cruiseships. However, Saba has two small ferriesa few days a week between Saba and Sint Maarten. In 2012 about 260 pleasure craft moored at Saba. The pleasure crafts stayed for an average of 2.1 days and had an average of 14 passengers on board. The ferries from St Maarten performed about 200 times with an average of 18.6 passengers. There were six cruises with an average of 86 passengers . Most pleasure boats and cruises came from or went to St Maarten, Sint Eustatius, St. Kitts – Nevis and St. Barthelemy .

Source: “Toerisme Caribisch Nederland 2012”, CBS