Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 3

35 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 Sustainability and preservation are important goals for the resort, which has been Blue Destination Certified. A Bonaire initiative, this certification requires an effort to meet certain sustainability requirements, which Harbour Village does through various means including coffee pod recycling – sending the pods to Holland, because there is no recycling option on the island. Purchasing paper straws and compostable plastic bags, and searching out ways to avoid single use plastics in the guest suites are other ongoing efforts. Adding a boat pump out station at the Marina is another endeavor the resort is taking on. Gonzalez admits that very soon it will be against the law to discharge sewage in the sea, and the Harbour Village Marina, which manages the 50 town moorings for STINAPA, the government’s environmental protection agency, is ready to provide the pump-out service when the law goes into effect. COVID brought its challenges for the resort, with sporadic cancellations, and uncertainty starting in March of 2020 and continuing into 2021. “We would go weeks with no one in the hotel, but then things started to open up a bit with Holland. We started getting quite a few reservations for the holiday period, and then two weeks before the holidays, Holland returned to lock down,” Gonzalez recalls. “So, half of the THE HARBOUR V I LLAGE BEACH CLUB