BONHATA Announces 10th Annual Award Winners

This past Sunday, Februrary 4th, BONHATA (the Bonaire Hotel and Tourism Association) honored a number of people and businesses in the Bonaire tourism community at its 10th annual awards event. The event was held at the newly opened Sunrise Restaurant at Sand Dollar Condominium Resort. In celebration of the anniversary, Mr. Peter Odle, President of the Caribbean Hotel Association and Mr. Jorge Pesquera, President & CEO of the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association (AHATA) were guest keynote speakers at the event.  The main theme of both speakers was the need to have a unified, private sector tourism association. 

Suggesting that Bonaire needs to unite its tourism efforts, Mr. Pesquera, who gave the keynote speech for the event, said “The success of AHATA is unquestionably directly related to its ability to maintain a unity of purpose and a common front in spite of huge internal differences within the board and membership.  A united front has given AHATA an immensely influential role in Aruba and an important seat at the table on all the major issues affecting tourism.  When AHATA speaks it is clear that it does on behalf of the entire hospitality community, including non members. And our statistics and recommendations carry significant weight in the establishment of public policy.”

This year, there were no categories for the awards.  Instead, the membership was asked to “think outside of the box” and nominate a company or individual who deserved recognition for the contribution they had made to the Tourism Industry of Bonaire.  The recipients were:

Match Consultancy, BV
Maribell De Wolff, Bonaire Tours & Vacations
Littman’s Jewellers
Maduro & Curiel’s Bank (Bonaire) N.V.
Marcel Olij
Bonaire Windsurfing Place
Jenmarie Coffie, Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino
Sara Matera
Orlando Francisca, Bonaire Motorcycle Shop
Marisela Croes, Rocargo Services, N.V.

A special award was also presented to Candice Kimmel and Marie Rosa of Adams Unlimited, in recognition of their dedication to Bonaire for over 15 years.  Their company has been instrumental making Bonaire the success it is, as a tourism destination.  At the same time, T.C.B. also honored Adams Unlimited with an original picture painted by Nochi Coffie, which was presented by the Minister of Labor and Economic affairs, Mr. Burney El Hage.

The full text of the presentation of the awards can be found here, and photos from this event, courtesy of BONHATA, can be found in the Bonaire Insider Gallery.

The evening was also a fund raising event and proceeds from this event’s raffle, which topped NAF 8,700, are slated to go to the Bonaire Culinary Team to assist in their “Taste of the Caribbean” culinary competition, to be held in Miami in June of this year. (Source: BONHATA Press Release)

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